io8 Records of the Indian Museum. fVoi,. Vl, 



tooth on the mandibles, the almost circular body (meso- and meta- 

 notum and abdomen together), and the uniformly elongated lateral 

 processes. These characteristics are precisely those noted by Hagen 

 (1873 p. 59) as diagnostic of larvae of Suphalasca, a genus in which 

 sabulosus and other species of Acmonotus were included before the 

 latter genus was founded and made the type of a separate sub- 

 family, Hagen's statement concerning the distinctive larval charac- 

 ters of Suphalasca appears to have been based on a description 

 published by Brauer (see Hagen, 1873, p, 43), but the two species 

 [dietrichiae and subtrahens) to one or other of which he (Hagen) 

 provisionally refers Brauer's larva are retained in the genus Supha- 

 lasca in Van der Week's Monograph of 1908. Froggatt (pp, 363-4) 

 also describes a larva which he regards as that of Suphalasca sabu- 

 losa, Walk., but as Van der Weele himself points out, this is a very 

 different form from his larva ; and as a matter of fact it does not 

 come within Hagen's definition of the larval characters of Supha- 

 lasca. Possibly, however, Froggatt 's larva may belong to a true 

 Suphalasca, and Brauer's, which was not determined with cer- 

 tainty, to some species now separated as Acmonotus, in which 

 case Hagen's diagnosis would still appear to hold good, but only 

 to the Acmonotus section of the undivided genus to which he 

 applied it. Assuming this to be the case there are at present pub- 

 lished the following descriptions of larvae of the Acmonotinae : — 

 Van der Weele on Acmonotus sabulosus. Walk., Brauer (followed 

 by Hagen) on some closely-allied (? the same) species; and the 

 above description of a species, as yet undetermined, of Pseudoptynx. 



As will appear from the above description, the larvae of Acmo- 

 notus are of a very abnormal form. The Pseudoptynx larvae, on 

 the contrary, are in no way abnormal. Of all the larvae hitherto 

 described the Pseudoptynx larvae most closely resemble Hagen's 

 " Glyptobasis incusans} odev Ascalaphus? cervinusl "" fromRatna- 

 pura, Ceylon (1873, pp, 44 — 46), This they resemble so closely that 

 it is not at all impossible that the shrivelled larvae from which 

 Hagen drew up his description may have been in reality the young 

 of this very species. Up to the present, however, no Pseudoptynx 

 of any species appears to have been recorded from Ceylon. 



The undetermined Ascalaphid larva with its curiously modified 

 lateral processes, is a much more abnormal creature and we are 

 unable to connect it with any other form known to us. 



Myrmeleonidae. 



The larvae of Myrmeleon contractus are chiefly remarkable on 

 account of their manner of life. Not only do they not form pits, 

 a habit hitherto believed to be universal with the larvae of this 

 genus, but neither do they hide under stones or rubbish, or cover 

 themselves over with a cloak of foreign matter as do the larvae of 

 some other genera. They only attach a little dust in a thin layer 

 to the dorsal surface of the head and thorax, the abdomen being 

 apparently always bare in spite of its pale colour. The abdomen 

 is however much less conspicuous on a background of bark than 



