Natural History. 177 
Count could ascertain. by reference to books, and. by inquiry 
amongst those best acquainted with insects, it had never been 
described. ‘The insect was five or six inches long, and two or 
three broad; its colour yellow; it was furnished with two long bi- 
furcated mandibles ; had at the upper part two brown antenne, 
each composed of two articulations, and supported on a white 
membraneous projection; beneath the mandibles were four feelers, 
two of them in constant motion. The body is divided into twelve 
rings, the three anterior have each two strong feet, and but little 
hair; the following eight have each two false. feet, and on each ~ 
Side two tufts of hair; the twelfth has two large terminal tufts of 
hair, which serve as a case to a sort of cartilaginous tail which 
the animal moves at pleasure and uses as a sort of supplementary 
foot: it is hollowed at the extremity, and covered with a viscid 
humour. Between the lines formed by the tufts are two ranges of 
projecting glandular black points, considered by M. Milzinsky as 
trachia. 
The larva is excessively voracious, attacking and apparently 
feeding entirely on snails. On meeting with a snail, if the animal 
be out of its shell, the larva takes a position on the shell and does 
not attack the snail until it has entirely entered its habitation; the 
larva then approaches the right side of the snail and forcibly 
plunges his head into it, helping itself powerfully by the use of the 
hind foot. ‘The snail gives evidence of suffering, and endeavours 
to withdraw into and go out of its shell, moving much about, but 
in a short time it ceases its motion and dies. The means by which 
the larva produced so quick a death to the snail could not be ascer- 
tained, for all passed so much within the shell as to be withdrawn 
from observation. During the time that the larva remains in the 
body of the snail, either alive or dead, only the terminal tufts of 
hair are seen without. The larva will sometimes in this manner 
attack and destroy three snails in one day. 
These insects are generally found in dry ditches or by hedges. 
If a snail’s shell be observed that has recently fallen, and the first 
spire be broken, one of these animals will almost certainly be found 
within. They vary in size, and are proportionate to the snails in 
which they are found. A small larva, on devouring a snail, grows 
considerably, changes its skin, and then searches for a larger snail. 
‘When it has attained its final size it attacks its last snail, rejecting 
avith force, towards the middle of its operation, a semi-liquid de- 
composing matter; and by the time it has eaten or emptied all the 
contents of the shell (the shell remaining clean) it has become 
large, white and shining; it then remains inactive for a variable 
portion of time, afterwards changes its skin, but in a manner 
different to the previous changes, and becomes achrysalis. In this 
state it remains awhile, and preserves its tufts, but less apparent 
than in the former state. The chrysalis remains at the bottom of 
» Vor, XVII. N 
