178 LIFE AND SPORT IN HAMPSHIRE 



on the little butterfly must be one of keen delight. 

 The back turning to the sun was so invariable when 

 they showed off not when they took refreshment on 

 thistle or scabious that I can hardly think it un- 

 essential. 



It is not, however, all beauty on the grassy Ox-drove 

 where the butterflies play and sun themselves. They 

 have sometimes a grim insect companion. Which is 

 the most evil-looking of all winged creatures in 

 England ? I believe I have discovered him in one of 

 the asiliform insects. I am not sure of the exact Latin 

 name ; there are several British members of his wicked 

 group, one Asilus crabriformis, another Leptogaster 

 cylindricus (names for a cork-lined box), but I will give 

 him the shorter name Satan. People who have 

 watched hairy asilus gripping his prey with the hold of 

 a forceps and have looked at him closely in all his 

 aspect of evil, will not quarrel with the name. Asilus 

 is insect Satan, and should have for attendants the 

 scorpion flies which visit us in late summer through 

 the open window, drawn to light like a moth. 



I first saw the insect Satan on the grassy Ox- 

 drove, among butterflies and grasshoppers. Later 

 we discovered another hunting-ground of his, a very 

 rough farm road or track in the hills above the 

 river, about half a mile from Ox-drove. This part 

 of Hampshire is a land of thick, unshorn hedges, 

 of little copses or spinnies by lonely branch roads. 

 It teems with insect life through August. I have 



