332 Mr. G. T. Betliune-Bakei's Notes on the 



The life-history of this extraordinarily specialised insect 

 is now fairly well known, its entire immature life is spent 

 in ants' nests — Aecojihilla rirescens, I believe; its larva 

 is covered with an excessively hard chitinous coat of mail, 

 quite impervious to the attacks of its enemies on whose 

 larvae it feeds, and it pupates absolutely within its chitinous 

 skin, whilst the imago when it emerges, soft and weak, 

 is so enveloped with fugitive scales that the ants smothered 

 with them are entirely baffled thereby. The armature is 

 quite Ruralid but peculiarly developed ; its great size will 

 be seen from the figure which is magnified, X 30, as are 

 the other figures. The tegumen is not large for the size 

 of the armature, but it has a quite peculiar hindward pro- 

 cess ; the tegumen is continued to the rear for two-thirds 

 of its forward length, two longish crescentic arms then 

 descend, which are entirely excavated on their inner side, 

 giving the appearance of a great hooked extension at the 

 back of the girdle, there are the usual falces of the order, 

 large and strong; the girdle is copious but simple, and 

 the clasps are small, ham-shaped, with the knuckle end 

 {i. e. the apex) well furnished with strong short teeth ; the 

 fulcrum is very strong, rising from two pyramidal bases 

 with a common foundation, and consist of two erect strong 

 straight spikes ; the aedoeagus is a large and broadish tube, 

 with the usual basal extension and a large shagreened 

 vesica, which is seen in the figure as apparently part of 

 the apical orifice of the tube. 



In the genus Mimacraea we might perhaps expect to 

 find, as we do, very specialised armature, the short 

 anal orifice (or very short tube) is apparent practically on 

 the underside of the dorsum, there being no tegumen 

 proper (as to its dorsum at least), the anus taking its place 

 and being fused on to the two lateral lobes or cheeks of the 

 tegumen at their upper rear margin ; the lateral part of 

 the tegumen consists of two large spherical lobes (one on 

 each side) whose upper front margin is produced forwards 

 into two long curved horn-hke processes, the apices of 

 which have a short row of very fine minute setae. The 

 girdle is narrow and simple in its main support, but is 

 provided with fine lateral curtains from the base of the 

 tegumen to near the fore part of the clasps ; this curtain 

 is furnished with strong spines on its lower portion, as 

 also is the inner surface of the clasps ; these are of unusual 

 shape, difficult to describe, and are furnished at the ex- 



