252 Mr. J. O. Westwood on the 



XXIX. On the Genus Mantispa, with Descriptions of various 

 New Species. Byi. O. Westwood, Esq. F.L.S.&c. 



[Read 2nd February, 1852.] 



Mantispa is one of those remarkable genera which, belonging to 

 one family of insects, put on the general appearance of the species 

 of another, or occasionally of several other families, to which they 

 possess but little, if any, real relationship. By Stoll, De Geer, 

 Pallas and Fabricius, the species were arranged in the genus 

 Mantis, belonging to the order Orthoptera; and Latreille, in his 

 earlier works, adopted the same view, by uniting them with the 

 family Mantidce. By Linnaeus, however, the species known to 

 him was regarded as aRaphidia; and Latreille, who never appears to 

 have dissected an insect of the genus (his characters in the " Genera 

 Crustaceorum," &c. iii. p. 93, being entirely derived from the ex- 

 ternal parts of the insect), relying upon the elongated form of the 

 prothorax, in his later works (commencing with the "Considerations 

 Generales," p. 276) has introduced it into the Neuroptera, placing 

 it (Fam. Nat. p, 436, &c.) in the family of which Raphidia is the 

 type. 



In the " Considerations" we find the only observations hitherto 

 published relative to the larvae of these curious insects, which 

 appear to resemble those of the Raphidice. " Ces derniers insectes, 

 ainsi que les Mantispes, se trouvent sur les chenes ; leurs habi- 

 tudes, et probablement leurs metamorphoses, sont identiques. 

 M. Bourgeois, entomologiste tres-zele, et qui a trouve frequem- 

 ment, aux environs de Lyons, la Mantispe villageoise, m'a donne 

 une larve conforme a celles des Raphidies, mais beaucoup plus 

 grande, et que je ne peux rapporter qu'a cette Mantispe." (Cons. 

 Gen. p. 69.) How far Latrielle's conjecture be correct has 

 never yet been ascertained ; the greater affinity of Mantispa with 

 Hemerobius than with Raphidia, and the diversity in the con- 

 dition of the pupa state of the two last named groups, lead me 

 however to question its correctness. The late T. Say gave an 

 account of the manner in which these insects capture their prey, 

 consisting of living flies, with their fore legs, in the same manner 

 as the Mantidce. (Amer. Entomology, ii. pi. 25.) 



As regards their relation with the Mantidce, we find the wings of 

 Mantispa constructed on the Neuropterous type ; the maxillae are 

 also destitute of a dentated inner lobe, and the lower lip is entire 

 instead of being bi- or 4-partite ; whilst as regards the structure of 

 Raphidia, we find the abdomen of the females of Mantispa des- 

 stitute of the long exserted ovipositor, and the tarsi with the third 



