98 EDW. JACOBSON, PLANIPENNIA FROM JAVA. 
captured under the light of the lamp, by which they are 
attracted. During daytime they hide in covered places, pres- 
sing their bodies against the stalks of plants or grass-blades, 
and in this way are so well concealed, that, during all my 
long sejourn in Java, I only found a few imagines in day- 
light, although they are common enough. 
The larva of Myrmeleon frontalis has the same curious and 
well-known habit as most of the larvae of other Myrmeleo- 
nidae, which living in dry earth or sand, move backwards, 
and make pitfalls to secure their prey. The larva lives in 
places sheltered from the rain, as it cannot make pitfalls 
were the sand is wet or damp. Hence the soil at the base 
of a wall, below the eaves, frequently harbours these insects. 
They may be found in great numbers under the sheltered 
galleries of houses, where the cement-floors have erumbled to 
dust, and are often so numerous, that on one occasion 70 
pitfalls were counted by me on one square meter. 
The smallest larvae I found had a length of about 2 mm. 
The colour of the young larva is of a greyish brown, and it 
is covered all over with bristles and spines, to which the 
particles of dust and sand adhere. The adult larva ‘is about 
11 mm. in length; very good figures of a young and a 
full-grown larva can be found in the above mentioned paper 
of Dr. van der Weele. 
I have not been able to ascertain the number of moults 
the larva has to go through before reaching maturity. Neither 
is the duration of the metamorphosis known to me, but con- 
eluding from what I observed of the larvae, hatched by me, 
I think that the time in which the metamorphosis can 
be completed depends on the supply of food. A larva 
abundantly fed, turned to a pupa in the course of 3 to 4 
months, whereas one of about the same size, but which I 
supplied with very little food at long intervals, took nearly 
a year for its completion. It is known, that the larvae of 
