164 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 
In the perfect state, they are abundantly met with amongst the 
foliage and herbage of various kinds. They are easily taken with a 
sweeping-net, and should be captured in quills or pill-boxes, killed in 
boiling water, and arranged, with the limbs extended, on gummed 
card-paper. 
Amongst the exotic species are especially to be noticed those 
composing the genus Leucospis Fab., which are the giants of the 
family, having the anterior wings longitudinally folded when at rest ; 
the abdomen of the females (fig. 77. 7.) compressed, with the ovipo- 
sitor recurved over the back when at rest, with a spiracle at each side 
of the fifth joint; the hind femora incrassated, and dentated beneath. 
The species, of which several are natives of Southern Europe, are 
varied with black and yellow, somewhat resembling small wasps: the 
abdomen of the males is 3-jointed, and of the females 5-jointed. 
The female of L. dorsigera Fab. is stated by Latreille to deposit its 
eggs in the nests of some species of Mason Bees; whilst that of L. 
gigas is stated to oviposit in the nests of Wasps: but the curious ob- 
servations stated by Latreille (NV. Dict. Hist. Nat. xvii. 513.) to have 
been made upon its history by the Comte de Saint Fargeau have not 
yet been published. This gentleman has, however, communicated to 
me an account of the mode of its oviposition: the female elevates 
itself on the tips of its tarsi upon walls close to the nests of the 
Mason Bees; and by degrees, it depresses the ovipositor, and 
bends it forwards beneath the body and between the legs, protruding 
it beyond the head, and inserting it into the nest. This account, 
therefore, proves the incorrectness of the suggestion of M. Biguet, 
conveyed in a letter to M. Giorna ( Calendario Entomologico, p.118.), 
that, from the dorsal position of the ovipositor, it is most probably in 
the nests of the common Earth Wasp (the cells of which are open on the 
under side) that it oviposits. (For descriptions of the species of this 
genus, consult Klug’s Monogr. above referred to; Walker, in Et. 
Mag. vol. ii. p. 20.; Fonscolombe, Spinola, Fabricius, Jurine ; my 
Memoir in Ent. Mag. vol. ii. p. 213., and a monograph forwarded by 
me to Dr. Klug for the 2d part of his Jahrbucher, containing descrip- 
tions of thirty-six species; Ahren’s Fauna, fasc. 2.; and Say, in 
Boston Journ. of Nat. Hist.) 
The genus Thoracantha La¢r. consists of various exotic species hav- 
ing the mesothoracic scutellum very greatly developed, and extended 
over the abdomen, concealing the wings when at rest, as in the 
