RESEMBLANCE TO THE ANT. 411 



It has a singularly ant-like appearance, and to an ordinary- 

 observer is so exactly like a yellow ant with long legs, that he 

 would probably set it down as belonging to those insects. Its 

 colour is pale yellow. 



The insect belongs to the family of the Proctotrupidas, a group 

 of Hymenoptera which has a very large range. The present 

 species is a native of the Celebes Islands, but others are found 

 spread over the greater part of the world. Even our own 

 country produces Gonatopus pedestris. This little insect frequents 

 hot, sandy places, and, where the sand is white and fine, can be 

 captured on account of its habit of falling into deep footprints 

 and other hollows in the sand, into which it rolls much after 

 the same manner that the victims of the Ant Lion are caught. 

 Mr. E. A. Smith tells me 

 that he has often taken it 

 at Low T estoft and Bourne- 

 mouth; and Mr. Westwood 

 mentions Yarmouth as a 

 favourite locality for this 

 insect. 



The resemblance to an 



j. . . Fig. 2H6. — Gonatopus Celebif'is. 



ant is in this species so (Pa.eyeiiow.) 



singularly close, that none 



but a practised entomologist would lake it for anything but 

 a little ant running about witli great speed. They are all very 

 active insects, as indeed might be inferred from the length and 

 structure of the legs. Some can even leap, but the generality 

 content themselves with running and flying. Mr. Westwood 

 remarks that some of the Proctotrupidas have a habit of 

 alternately raising and depressing the abdomen while resting 

 on hot sunny banks. 



The reader will have noticed that the insect which is shown 

 in the figure has no wings. In the genus Gonatopus this pecu- 

 liarity belongs to the females. It was once thought that in the 

 wingless specimens of Proctotrupidre the wings had been inten- 

 tionally broken off, as is done by the ants. This, however, is not 

 the case; for even where the rudiments of the wings are seen, 

 the edges are quite smooth, and not jagged as they are when 

 they have been broken away. In the present genus, the hind 

 pair of wings of the male are lobed. 



