200 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 
Astata Latr. affords an example of the confluence of the eyes in the 
crown of the head in the males (fig. 82.6.). A.boops Schr. (A. victor 
Curt., abdominalis Panz. Latr.) is the only British species (fig. 82. 
1. 9, 2. labrum, 3. mandible, 4. maxilla, 5. labiam). It is exceed- 
ingly active, and its flight is very rapid. The males seem to select 
a spot on the ground, or, more especially, bits of dry horse-dung, 
on which they sit for a length of time; but, on approaching them, 
they dart off, making a large circle, and then fly back to the same 
spot, chasing flies, &c., away, should they approach: when alighted 
they turn themselves round once or twice, as if to make a complete 
survey, and then remain still for a time. I have captured it with its 
prey, which consisted of the pupa of Pentatoma dissimilis ?; but Mr. 
Shuckard states that he always found it to consist of the larva of P. 
bidens, and that Mr. Curtis took it with the larva P. prasina. Mr. 
Curtis, however, states that it was the pupa of P. prasina or of P. 
dissimilis. The former gentleman also states that Mr. Smith had cap- 
tured it carrying off Epeolus variegatus ; and he has also informed me 
that he caught one carrying a spider, which it had killed with its sting. 
The family LArripm* (fig. 82. 14. Larra Ichneumoniformis ; 
15—18. details of its mouth) is closely allied to the preceding family, 
but differs in the mandibles (fig. 82. 16.) having a deep notch on the 
outer margin near the base ; the labrum (fig. 82. 15.) is but slightly 
exserted, or entirely concealed by the clypeus; the maxillary lobes 
(fig. 82. 17.) are rather large, and the labial laciniz distinct (fig. 82. 
18.); the abdomen is either ovoid-conic or conical, broadest at the 
base, and not annexed to the thorax by means of a peduncle; the 
collar is small, and does not extend backwards to the base of the 
wings; the legs are of moderate size, those of the females generally 
strongly ciliated for burrowing. This family is of small extent, and 
the species of which it is composed are of small or but moderate size. 
They are ordinarily found in sandy situations, but the precise eco- 

* Bristiocr. Rerer. TO THE LARRID&. 
Brullé, in Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, tom. ii. (Nephridia.)’ 
Shuckard, Trans. Ent. Soc. vol. ii. (Monogr. Pison.) 
The general works of Fabricius, Rossi, Spinola, Klug (Symb. Phys.), Savigny 
(Egypte), Brullé (Morea), §c. 
