196 INSECTA. 



distance. In this manner, and sometimes in the space of half an 

 hour, it Avill remove a reversed cone of sand the hase of which is 

 equal in diameter to that of the area, and the height to about 

 three-fourths of the same. Hidden and quiescent at the bottom 

 of its retreat, with nothing visible but its mandibles, it awaits 

 with 2)atience till an Insect is precipitated into it; if it endeavour 

 to escape, or be at too great a distance for it to seize, it showers 

 upon it such a torrent of sand by means of its head and mandi- 

 bles, as propels it, stunned and defenceless, to the bottom of the 

 hole. Having exhausted its juices by suction, it drags away the 

 carcass and leaves it at a distance from its domicil. 



The nutritive matter it thus obtains is not converted into any 

 perceptible excrement, neither is this larva — and such also is the 

 case with several others — provided with an opening analogous to 

 an anus. It can abstain from food for a long period without 

 any apparent suffering. 



When about to pass into the state of the chrysalis, it encloses 

 itself in a perfectly round cocoon, formed of a silky substance, 

 which it covers externally with grains of sand. Its fusi are 

 situated at the posterior extremity of the body. The perfect 

 Insect makes its appearance at the expiration of fifteen or twenty 

 days, and leaves its exuvium at the aperture it has effected in 

 its cocoon. 



AsCALAPHUS, Fab. 



"VAHiere the antennae are long and terminate abruptly in a button ; 

 the abdomen forms an oblong oval, and is hardly longer than the tho- 

 rax. 



The wings are proportionally wider than those of the Myrmcleones, 

 and not so long. 



Bonnet has observed, in the environs of Geneva, a larva simi- 

 lar to that of the preceding sribgenus, but which neither moves 

 backwards nor excavates a funnel. The posterior extremity of 

 its abdomen is furnished with abifid plate truncated at the end *. 

 It is perhaps the larva of the Ascalaphus italicus, peculiar to the 

 south of Europe, and which now begins to appear in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Paris and Fontainebleau f . 



3. The Hemerobini of Latreille, which are similar to the Myrme- 

 leonides in the general form of their body and wings; but their an- 

 tennae are filiform, and they have but four palpi. 



They form the genus 



Hemerobius, Lin. Fab. 

 In some, the first segment of the trunk is very small, and the wings 



* This larva has also been found in Dalraatia, by Count Dejean. 

 t The same works. For some species of New Holland, see Leach, Zool. Mis- 

 cellany. 



