DIPTERA. — MYDASID&. 549 
voraciously upon such other insects* as they can overcome, and of 
which they suck the fluids. Macquart states, that the large species 
attack cattle in the same manner as the Tabani.t The species are 
far more numerous in the hotter regions of the globe than in temperate 
climes. 
The larva, which reside under ground, and feed on the roots of 
plants, are apod, elongated, depressed, 12-jointed grubs (fig. 129. 15.), 
having a scaly head, armed with two moveable unguiform appendages; 
and the prothoracic and anal segments are respectively furnished with 
a pair of spiracles, the posterior pair being tubular. They are trans- 
formed into pupe (fig. 129. 16.), which are naked and incomplete, 
posteriorly attenuated; the forehead being armed with two strong 
curved spines, and the sides of the head with three, placed closely 
together. On each side of the thorax, near the head, is a tubercle, 
which Latreille presumes may be a spiracle. The abdominal segments 
are armed with rows of spines, and the apex is 4-spined. Frisch 
(Beschr. i. pt. 3. tab. 7. and 8.) has illustrated the transformations 
of Asilus forcipatus and crabroniformis; the former of which has 
been also described and figured by De Geer. (Mém. tom. vi. pl. 14. 
f, 5—9.) Harris also (Exposit. Engl. Ins. t.17.) figures the trans- 
formations of this genus. 
The family Mypasipa{ is of very small extent and anomalous 
character, some of the species being the most gigantic of the whole 
order, and for the most part exotic. The antenne are generally much 
* Robineau Desvoidy ( Comptes Rendus 1836, No. 23.) states that he had ob- 
served Asilus Diadema flying with a bee in its hold several times, and had seen it 
settle in a situation where there was a burrow; he did not, however, see the Asilus 
actually bury the Apis. Indeed, it appears to me unquestionable, that it was for 
its own food that the Asilus had captured the bee, and not for a supply of food to 
be laid up for its progeny, as in the case of the fossorial Hymenoptera. 
+ Linnzus, indeed ( Tour in Lapland, vol. i. p. 217.), describes Asilus crabroni- 
formis as the cause of the terror evinced by cattle, now attributed to Céstri; and he 
accounts for the animals seeking retreat in water, from the circumstance that the 
Asilus flies close to the ground, and attacks the lower part of the legs of the ani- 
mals. The latter statement, given in the first edition of the Fauna Suecica, on the 
authority of the common people, is omitted in the second edition of that work. 
See Wiedemann’s monograph on the genus Mydas, in Nova Acta Natur. Curios. 
vol. xv. pt.2.; also Westwood, in Taylor’s Phil. Mag. April, 1835 (additional 
species). 
NN 3 
