THP] DIGGERS. 341 



not been explored by them. In these Ants there are no 

 workers or neuters, and the males are always winged and the 

 females without wings. The legs of the female are strong and 

 used for burrowing. 



On Woodcut XXXIII. Fie. 2, is shown the female of one of 

 our few species, Mutilla Earopcea, the male being drawn at 

 Fig. 3. In this insect the principal colours are black and 

 yellow. The head and legs are black, the thorax is rust-red, and 

 the abdomen is shining black, with a band of pale, sliining 

 yellow hair on the first, second, and third segments. The legs 

 are black, and covered with hair and bristles. The male is 

 steely-blue rather than black, the thorax is redder than in the 

 female, and the wings are dusky, darkening on the edges to- 

 wards the tips. This is a scarce, though widely-distributed 

 insect, and has been taken in that very fertile locality, Darenth 

 Wood. It is also found in the New Forest. 



It is a parasitic insect, the larva of the Mutilla feeding on 

 that of the Humble Bee. In Denmark, out of a nest of 

 Humble Bees containing nearly eighty cells, only two of the 

 legitimate inhabitants were hatched, and seventy-six Mutillas, 

 forty-four being males and the remainder females. The 

 jMutillidpe are not all parasitic on Humble Bees ; as, in coun- 

 tries where Humble Bees are very scarce, the Mutillidse are 

 plentiful ; wliile in England, where the Humble Bees and their 

 nests are so common, the Mutillidse are very scarce. 



We now come to the Diggers, and take first the fixmily of 

 Pompilidce, in which the thorax is broad — sometimes broader 

 than it is long, and sometimes slightly squared. The hinder mar- 

 gins are rather angular, the legs are long, and the abdomen is at- 

 tached to the thorax by a short footstalk. On Woodcut XXXIV. 

 Fig. 1, is shown one of these insects, called Pompllus fuscus, 

 slightly enlarged, so as to show better the formation of the 

 wing. In this genus the head is wide, and set transversely on 

 the thorax, and the three ocelli are placed in a triangle on the 

 foi-ehead. The antennae of the female form a curl at the end, 

 as represented in the illustration, while those of the male are 

 only bent. The front wings have one marginal and three sub- 

 marginal cells. The hind legs are long, and their claws have 

 a little pad between them. The abdomen is longer in the 



