198 Rev. Mr. Kirsy’s Account of the Ammophila, 
‘think, evident to every one who confults De Geer’s figure of that 
infect (i). Indeed that author defcribes the roftrum as having a 
different direétion from that which is mentioned above (2), and 
which is obfervable in all my {pecies of Ammophila: yet fince he could 
have no opportunity of examining a recent fpecimen, (this infect 
being a native of South America,) he might very eafily have been mif- 
led in this point ; for the roftrum readily affumes and retains a direc- 
tion outwards, although its natural pofition when at reft is inwards. 
It is fingular that fo attentive and accurate an obferver fhould 
have entirely overlooked this confpicuous part in Sphex fabulo oft, 
efpecially as it had not efcaped the notice of Linnzus. 
I have given this genus the name of Ammophila, becaufe thofe 
fpecies with which I am acquainted frequent fandy banks, particu- 
Jarly fuch as are expofed to the fun. 
This is nearly allied to feveral genera. The Sphex /abulofa one 
would take at firft fight for an Ichneumon, and Geoffroy (/) has ranked . 
it under that genus. It has the antennz, fierce port, and manners 
of Sphex : its bifid tongue conneéts it with Ye/pa; and the inflexed 
dire&tion and form of the valves of its roftrum give it an alliance 
with a large number of 4pes. On this account I would \place: it 
between the two latter genera. 
Linnzus, in an admirable ‘*Methodus demonftrandi lapides, vegeta- 
bilia, aut animalia,’? which Ihave feen at the end of fome editions of 
his Syfema Natura, under the Article Genus, lays down the Charaéter 
naturalis as aneceffary part of it ; although he has only given zatural 
charaéiers inhis\Genera Plantarum. Fabricius is the fart Entomo~ 
(i) Tom. II. Partie Il. Tab. 32. fig. 13-16. 
(2) Mem. XII. p. 761. 
(/) Tom. IL. p. 349. n. 63. 
logitt 
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