284 MGWM. 



is flat on its upper surface and destitute of the carinas 

 observable in the other British species ; its sides are 

 rather dilated at the base and somewhat recurved. The 

 animal is oval and convex; the eyes large and lateral, with 

 many hexagonal facets ; those, however, of the external 

 margin have their outer edge circular (a peculiarity now 

 ascertained to occur in the hexagonal structure of the 

 hive bee, which has lately been the cause of considerable 

 discussion among Entomologists). In our figure, a, the 

 third or right-hand row of facets is the external one. 

 The upper antennas are short, with a ten-jointed flagel- 

 lum, whilst the lower ones have the same part formed of 

 about eighteen articulations. The palpiform appendage 

 of the mandible is very slender and terminated by a 

 short thin and curved hook -like joint. The three an- 

 terior pairs of legs are strong and terminated by power- 

 ful hooked fingers ; the middle joints in the first pair are 

 very short, but in the third pair the second and third 

 joints are armed with small conical tubercles; the four 

 posterior pairs of legs are longer and more slender, the 

 under edge of the terminal joints being spinose, the 

 spines being set in transverse rows. The lateral appen- 

 dages of the tail are narrow and of nearly equal size, the 

 inner plate of each pair being strongly emarginate on its 

 outer margin near the extremity, which is ciliated. In 

 one sex these organs are accompanied on the inner edge 

 by an elongated conical horny plate, represented in our 

 middle left-hand figure.* 



Although the species was introduced by Samouelle 

 into his work on British species (no locality, however, 



* In our principal figure of this species the articulation at the base of this 

 narrow plate has been accidentally omitted, giving to the fifth segment of the 

 tail the appearance of being produced on each side of the terminal joint 

 into a long narrow point. 



