More Hunting Wasps 



With its convex back and its almost flat 

 ventral surface, the creature is like a semi- 

 cylinder in shape, fuller in the hinder portion. 

 On the back, each of the segments, except 

 the last, or anal, segment, puckers into three 

 thick pads, bristling with stiff, tawny hairs. 

 The anal segment, much wider than the rest, 

 is rounded at the end and coloured a deep 

 brown by the contents of the intestine, which 

 show through the translucent skin ; it bristles 

 with hairs like the other segments, but is 

 level, without pads. On the ventral sur- 

 face, the segments have no creases; and the 

 hairs, though abundant, are rather less so 

 than on the back. The legs, which are quite 

 well-formed, are short and feeble in com- 

 parison with the animal's size. The head 

 has a strong, horny cap for a cranium. The 

 mandibles are powerful, with bevelled tips 

 and three or four teeth on the edge of the 

 bevel. 



Its mode of locomotion marks it as an 

 idiosyncratic, exceptional, fantastic creature, 

 having no fellow, that I know of, in the in- 

 sect world. Though endowed with legs — 

 a trifle short, it is true, but after all as good 

 as those of a host of other larvae — it never 

 uses them for walking. It progresses on 

 its back, always on its back, never otherwise. 



100 



