214 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 
themselves, on the approach of danger, amongst grass, and under 
stones ; they are always found on the ground, but the males occasion- 
ally frequent flowers. 
Little has been observed with precision with respect to the habits 
of these insects; but it cannot be doubted, from the structure of 
their legs, and the situations in which they are found, that they closely 
resemble those of the other sand-wasps. I have, indeed, dug the 
female of Mutilla Europzea out of sand-banks*, and have constantly 
taken M. rufipes@ on the sand, but have never observed either in the 
act of burrowing. Christius, indeed, states that the former is gre- 
garious, nidificating in company with Bombus terrestris. I have no- 
ticed that when alarmed it makes a rather sharp noise, most pro- 
bably by the action of the large collar against the front of the 
mesothorax. M. Goureau has also noticed the same circumstance in 
both females and males, and attributes it to the friction of the base of 
the third segment of the abdomen within the preceding joint. (Anz. 
Soc. Ent. de France, 1837, p. 66.) 
The males of the typical genus are furnished with a minute spine 
on each side of the anus, and the eyes are reniform; in both which 
respects the genus nearly approaches Scolia; indeed, the relation 
between these two families is, in several respects, extremely close. 
From information given by Mr. MacLeay to Mr. Kirby, it appears 
that a large North American species (Mutilla coccinea) is very active, 
taking flies by surprise, probably for the purpose of storing its cells. 
Its sting is so powerful, that a person stung by one lost his senses in 
five minutes, and was subsequently so ill that his life was despaired 
of. 
. The females of the genus Methoca are also apterous ; but the tho- 
rax is constricted into three knots (fig. 84. 19. M. ichneumonides), 
thus resembling Gonatopus and some of the ants. I have observed 
that, when captured, it endeavours to roll itself into a ball, by bending 
the head and tail beneath the breast. They are found in hot sandy 
situations, over which the male takes its flight. This sex is quite un- 
like the female, with a long slender abdomen, continuous thorax, and 
long antenne (Fint. Text. B. pl.3. f.5.), and was considered by Latreille 
as a distinct genus, Tengyra, which was arranged amongst the Scoliida. 
* Mr. Pickering has also dug M. Europxa 2 out of sand banks, and observed 
the wings of flies amongst the sand, whence it is evident that it was upon the latter 
insects that the former had subsisted. 
