220 TRUE TALES OF THE INSECTS. 



brilliant sunshine, and others the majority in the early 

 evening, in the twilight and just at dusk ; and certain 

 species are nocturnal and fly to light. 



The larvae are as readily distinguished as the imagos. 

 Conspicuous, green in colour, hairless, and smooth, many 

 are furnished with a prominent rigid spine near the tail 

 called the caudal horn, which is sometimes lost in the 

 later stages and then replaced by a shining lenticular 

 tubercle. At rest, they have a remarkable fashion of 

 elevating the head and thoracic segments, and curving 

 them somewhat in sigmoidal shape, while they support 

 themselves by their four or six hind legs, in which posture 

 they remain for hours together, immovably fixed ; and it 

 is supposed that this attitude, giving them a fancied 

 resemblance to the Egyptian Sphinx, prompted the 

 name that Linnaeus bestowed. They pass a solitary 

 existence on trees, shrubs, or low plants, and suffer 

 much from Ichneumonidae, the check that alone prevents 

 some species from becoming very injurious. When full- 

 grown they transform above ground in an imperfect 

 cocoon among leaves, or go underground and pupate 

 in a cell. 



Macroglos since. 



Within this family six sub-families are included, and 

 the marvellously specialized condition of some of their 



