STATES OF INSECTS. (Jmago.) 299 
Act@on, &c., as likewise those of Lucanus, are larger than 
the unarmed females?. In the Newroptera the female 
Iuibellulina are sometimes sensibly smaller, and never 
larger, than their males>. In the Hymenoptera the male 
of the hive-bee, but more particularly that of Anthidium 
manicatum and other bees of: that genus, is much more 
robust than the other sex*. In the Diptera, the same 
difference is observable in Syrphus Ribesit, and some 
other aphidivorous flies, and also in Scatophaga stercor- 
aria‘, And amongst the apterous tribes, we are in- 
formed by De Geer that the male of Argyroneta aquatica, 
which builds an aérial palace in the bosom of the waters ¢, 
usually exceeds the female in bulk'. The reason of 
this rule seems in some degree connected with the office 
of the female as a mother, that sufficient space may be 
allowed for the vast number of eggs she is destined to 
produce; and it is when impregnation has taken place, 
and the eggs are ready for extrusion, that the difference 
is most sensible. In the majority of cases this sexual 
disproportion is not very considerable, but in some few 
it is enormous. Reaumur mentions a beetle, of which 
he intended to give the history, the male of which is so 
small compared with the female, that a bull not bigger 
than a sheep, or even a hare, set by the side of the 
largest cow, would aptly contrast with them. This little 
beetle, he says, has wings and elytra, while the giant 
female has no vestige of either, having the upper surface 
2 Oliv. N1tifil.e. fi N.3 til, fi 2.abc. tv. f. 33. 
t. vi. f. 5. t. xiii. f. 124, a b. > Reaum. vi. 423. 
© Kirby Mon. Ap. Angl. ii. t. xvi. f. 12, 13. ¢. xvii. f. 10—12. 
“ Reaum. iv. 393. © See above, Vout. I. 479—. 
‘ De Geer vii. 304. 
