38 MUTILLIDiB. MUTILLA. 



Fam. 4. Mutillidae, Leach. 



(Solitary Ants.) 



The species of which this family is composed arc solitary ; they 

 consist oftwosexes, male and female; the males always winged, 



tin females apterous ; the legs of the females stout, and fitted for 

 burrowing; the tibiae spinose ; the tarsi ciliated; the antennae 

 filiform or setaceous; the apical segment of the abdomen of the 

 males usually furnished with teeth or spines. 



Genus 1. MUTILLA, Linn. 



Head suborbiculate in the female, transverse and compressed 

 in the males ; eyes small and round in the female, usually more 

 or less emarginate in the males, but in some species they are 

 ovate or louud ; the stemmata three in a triangle placed on the 

 vertex in the male, but wanting in the female; the antenna? sub- 

 filiform, gradually tapering to their apex, which is acuminate, in- 

 serted on the sides of the base of the clypeus ; the mandibles 

 arcuate, and usually unidentate in the female and tridentate in 

 the male, but varying occasionally in this respect ; the thorax 

 longitudinal in the female, and truncated usually at both extre- 

 mities, in some exotic species much narrowed posteriorly ; the 

 prothorax in the male extending laterally to the origin of the 

 wings, the tegulse usually very large ; the anterior wings with one 

 marginal and three submarginal cells, the marginal one usually of 

 a nearly semicircular shape ; the three submarginal cells subequal. 

 the second and third each receiving a recurrent nervure, the second 

 nervure being almost obsolete, as well as the third transverso- 

 cubital nervure, from the middle of which emanates a more or 

 less abbreviated nervure, never extending to the apex of the wing ; 

 in a few exotic species the third submarginal cell is obsolete ; 

 the legs moderately long and pubescent in the male, more robust 

 and spinose in the female. Abdomen ovate, the first segment 

 subpyriform, sometimes petiolate, the second subcampanulate, 

 and the apex curved in the male. 



The genus Mutilla is probably the most extensive in the en- 

 tire group of the Aculeata — the Catalogue of the Fossores, pub- 

 lished by the British Museum, enumerates 313 species ; they are 

 scattered universally : not only are they found in all the quarters 



