COLEOPTERA. 503 



The SiyhpidcB, for which Kirby,* in 181 1, instituted a distinct 

 Order, which he called Strepsiptera, in allusion to the contortion of 

 the elytra, and to which Latreille f subsequently applied the name of 

 Rhiptptera^ are, perhaps, the most anomalous of all insects. Great 

 diversity of opinion has existed respecting their affinities ; but modern 

 systematists, with but few exceptions, concur in referring them to the 

 Order Coleoptera, and locating them in proximity to Melo'e. In the 

 larva state, all the known species of the family inhabit the bodies of 

 hymenopterous insects of the genera Andrena, PoHstes, &c., in this 

 particular resembling the dipterous genus Conops, which inhabits the 

 body of humble bees,:|: and apparently in no way inconveniencing 

 their victims ; a fact which has been accounted for on the supposition 

 that their existence in the larva state is but short, and that their 

 attacks being directed against the abdomen, and not the thorax, the 

 seat of life in insects, their presence does not affect the activity of the 

 victim. The larva has a soft fusiform body, surmounted by a some- 

 what globose head. While feeding, the head is towards the base of 

 the abdomen ; but on changing to a pupa, this position is reversed, 

 and the head — at first of light brown, but which after a short time 

 becomes black — thrust out between the plates of the abdomen. 



The imagos, which are of small size, namely, about the eighth of 

 an inch long, are found during May and June. They have four wings, 

 but the anterior pair, of hard texture, somewhat resembling elytra, but 

 hardly answering to them in structure, are very poorly developed, 

 and curled round the front pair of legs, hence the name bestowed, 

 by Kirby, from (rrpexpcns, a twisting, and irrfpSu, a wing; the posterior 

 wings are fully developed, and fold up like a fan, whence the Order 

 received the name of Rhipiptera from Latreille. The eyes, the 

 facettes of which are few in number, are placed on a foot-stalk, whence 

 the name of the genus Sty/ops. The parts of the mouth connect the 

 Strepsiptera with the mandibulated insects, although by some supposed 

 to bear analogy by their functions to those parts in the Diptera. The 

 male only is winged ; the female is very like an apodal larva, the 

 larva being an active hexapod. 



The family Stylopidce is divided into four genera, of which two 



only, Xenos and Stylops, were described by Kirby in the essay referred 



to above. First, Xenos ^ from |eVos, a guest, the most prolific in species, 



' of which Xenos Rossii^ sometimes called vesparum^ may be taken as 



* " On a new Order of Insects," Linn. Trans., vol. xi. 

 f In Cuvier, " Le Regne Animal," ed. i., tome iii., p. 584. 

 + See p. 69. 



