55 



rubbed. Moreover, a very fine and recent specimen corresponding with the present figure 

 has lately been received by Mr. Havill, of Oxford Street, printseller and naturalist, who 

 has demanded the sum of fifty pounds for it. The individual here figured is in the collection 

 of Mr. Mac Leay, to whom I have been indebted for a sight of it, and by whose father it 

 was purchased at the sale of Mr. Drury's collection at the price of £l'2. Is. (hL, forming 

 lot 95, in the first day's sale, Thursday May "23, 180.5, and described in the catalogue as 

 " Scarabseus Goliathus, var." I have also seen in the Royal Museum at Berlin a female 

 of this genus havmg the head unarmed, and agreeing in colour and markings with the 

 insect here figured, but which is regarded by Dr. Klug as a species distinct from the 

 Goliath, maximus, and which he has recently described in Ermann's Voyage. 



MYRMELEON TORRIDUM. 



Plate XM. 



Order: Neuroptera. Section: Filicornes. Family: Myrmeleonidae, ieac/i. 



Genus. Myrmeleon, Linn. Sfc. 



MYRMELEON ToRRiDUM. Capite thoraceque fiilvesceiitibus, liuea tlorsali nigra, hoc griseo-pubescenti, abdoniine 



fusco, alis fusco-punctatis et maculatis, inaculis posticarum majoiibus et versus apicem erueem 



irregularem formautibus. (Expans. Alar. 6 iinc. 9 lin.) 

 Syn. Myrmeleon Libeiluloides var., Drury, App. col. 3. 

 Habitat ; Sierra Leone. 



Antenna? black, slender, and thickest at the extremities. Head, neck, and thorax yellowish brown, 

 with a black longitudinal stripe running along the middle. Four palpi, two of which are short ; the 

 other two long, slender, and knobbed at the extremities. Thorax nearly covered with grey hairs. 

 Abdomen yellowish brown; but, when the insect was living, was probably green. Wings of equal 

 length, the anterior being broadest, all marked with a great number of red-brown spots, and clouds 

 of various shapes and sizes, and appearing to be composed of fine lattice-work like gauze, and 

 perfectly transparent where they are not clouded. Legs nearly of equal length, having two strong 

 tibial spurs. 



This is the insect referred to in the observations upon Myrmeleon Libeiluloides figured 

 in Vol. I. tab. 46. fig. 1. as having been regarded by Drury and Fabricius as a variety of 

 that South- Europsean species. That they are specifically distinct both in their habitat and 

 characters will not, I think, be doubted. The peculiar dilatation of the extremity of the 

 postei'ior wings is a curious character not found in the Libeiluloides. 



