24.0 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 
truncate or emarginate ; the maxillary palpi are shorter or scarcely 
longer than the maxillary lobe, the basal joints being elongate-cylin- 
dric ; the terminal joints of the antenne of the males are often recurved 
and hooked at the tip (fig. 87. 11. extremity of ant. of Epipone spi- 
nipes ¢ ); the thorax is short and truncate both in front and behind ; 
the basal segment of the abdomen is more or less coarctate, in the 
typical species forming a long and narrow peduncle ( jig. 87. 6.); the 
legs are not furnished with ciliz or spines, although these insects 
generally construct their nests with earth in cavities of walls, old 
wooden palings, or in sand banks, forming a succession of cells placed 
end to end, in each of which an egg is placed, together with a sufficient 
supply of food for the entire consumption of the larva, consisting of 
other insects, larvae, spiders, &c. The female then carefully closes 
the mouth of the cell with earth. 
Réaumur (Mém. tom. vi. pl. 26. f. 1—10.) has given the history of 
a species of this family, which Latreille (Atégne An. tom. v. p. 336.) 
considers to be the Odynerus (Vespa) muraria Zinn.* This insect, 
during the early months of summer, forms a burrow in the sand to 
the depth of several inches, in which it constructs its cells; besides 
which it builds, with the grains of sand brought up whilst burrowing, 
a tubular entrance to the burrow, often more than an inch long, and 
more or less curved, the grains of sand of which it is formed being ag- 
glutinated together ; each female forms several of these burrows and de-~ 
posits an egg in each cell, together with a number of green caterpillars, 
which it arranges in a spiral direction, one being applied against the 
other, and which serve as food for the larva when hatched. When 
the store of food is secured, the insect closes the mouth of the burrow, 
employing the grains of sand of which the funnel was composed for 
that purpose. 
The larve of Odynerus are fleshy grubs, destitute of feet (fig. 87. 5. 
magnified), with transverse dorsal tubercles serving in their stead. The 
body (including the head) consists of fourteen segments and a minute 
anal tubercle, with ten spiracles on each side. I have reared both 
* Mr. Shuckard (Mag. Nat. Hist. Sept. 1837) gives the muraria as identical 
with Odynerus (Epipone) spinipes, stating that it is the latter which constructs this 
trumpet-shaped tube. Such may be the case, but Réaumur’s description and figure 
do not accord with the former species, but rather with the true Linnzan V. muraria 
(which belongs to a different subgenus), according to the description of the authentic 
specimen of the latter still in the Linnean Cabinet, forwarded by me to M. Wesmael, 
and by him published in the Bull. Acad. Bruwxelles. Ceramius Fonscolombei has 
similar habits. 
