410 INSECTA. 



2. The MYRMELEONIDES, which also have five joints in the tarsi, but their 

 head is not prolonged anteriorly in the form of a rostrum or snout ; their 

 antenmr gradually enlarge, or have a globuliform termination. 



Their head is transverse, vertical, and merely presents the ordinary eyes, 

 which are round and prominent; there are six palpi, those of the labium 

 usually longer than the others, and inflated at the extremity. The palate of 

 the mouth is elevated in the form of an epiglottis ; the first segment of the 

 thorax is small ; the wings are equal, elongated, and tectiform ; the abdomen 

 is most frequently long and cylindrical, with two salient appendages at its 

 extremity in the males. The legs are short. 



They are found in the warm localities of the southern countries, clinging to 

 plants, where they remain quiescent during the day. Most of them fly well. 

 The nymph is inactive. 



These insects form the genus 



MYRMELEON, Linneetis. 



In Myrmeleon proper, the antennae enlarge insensibly, are almost fusiform, 

 are hooked at the extremity, and much shorter than the body ; the abdomen 

 is long and linear. 



M . formicarium, Lin. About an inch long ; blackish spotted with yellow- 

 ish ; wings diaphanous, with black nervures picked in 

 with white ; some obscure spots, and one whitish, near 

 the extremity of the anterior margin. 



The number of ants destroyed by the larva of this 

 species, which is the most common one in Europe, has obtained for it the name of 

 Formica-leo, Lion-ant, or Fourmileon. Its abdomen is extremely voluminous 

 in comparison to the rest of the body. Its head is very small, flattened, and 

 armed with two long mandibles in the form of horns, dentated on the inner 

 side and pointed at the extremity, which act at once as pincers and suckers. 

 Its body is greyish, or of the colour of the sand in which it lives. Although 

 provided with six feet, it moves very slowly and almost always backwards. 

 Thus, not being able to seize its prey by the celerity of its motions, it has 

 recourse to stratagem ; and lays a trap for it in a funnel-shaped cavity which 

 it excavates in the finest sand, at the foot of a tree, old walls, or acclivities 

 exposed to the south. It arrives at the intended scene of its operations by 

 forming a ditch, and traces the area of the funnel, the size of which is in 

 proportion to its growth. Then, always moving backwards, and describing 

 as it goes, spiral convolutions, the diameter of which progressively diminishes, 

 it loads its head with sand by means of one of its anterior feet, and jerks it 

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

 it will remove a reversed cone of sand, the base 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 mandi- 

 bles, it awaits with patience 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 



