172 BEE CLEAR-WING. 



the ^Egeridse after the kinds to which they are 

 thought to make the nearest approach. They fly 

 during the heat of the day, many of them with 

 great rapidity, and alight upon the flowers from 

 which they extract their nourishment. All of them 

 are rather scarce insects in this country, with the 

 exception of the little IE. Tipuliformis, which is 

 plentiful in gardens in many parts of England, hut 

 does not seem to come far north. The larvae, which 

 are soft, fleshy, and of a pale colour, subsist on the 

 pith and wood of trees and shrubs, in the interior 

 of which they also undergo their metamorphosis. 

 The cell is constructed so near the surface as to 

 leave only a thin exterior covering, and when the 

 chrysalis is matured, it pushes itself through this 

 frail barrier, chiefly by the aid of a series of fine 

 spines on the abdomen inclining backwards, which 

 serve, when the body is agitated, as a point of sup- 

 port for advancing the head, which terminates in a 

 point to make the perforation more easy. Trochi- 

 lium is chiefly distinguished by the shortness of the 

 proboscis and antennae, the latter being slightly 

 serrated and terminating in a tuft of hair ; by the 

 transparency of the tip of the anterior wings, and 

 the comparatively thick and robust body. The 

 species named Afiform* (from its resemblance to 

 a bee), is yellow on the head ; the thorax brown, 

 with four yellow spots, the two anterior ones large 

 and triangular, the posterior two smaller and rounded. 

 The abdomen is yellow, with the first and fourth 

 segments black and clothed with brown pubescence 



