440 1NSECTA. 



but their head is not prolonged anteriorly in the form of a rostrum 

 or snout; their antennae gradually enlarge or have a globuliform 

 termination. 



Their head is transverse, vertical, and merely presents the ordi- 

 nary eyes, which are round and prominent; there are six palpi, those 

 of the labium usually longer than the others, and inflated at the ex- 

 tremity. 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, Lin. 



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

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

 is long and linear. 



M. formicarium, L. 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 y 

 Lion-ant, or Fourmilion. Its abdomen is extremely voluminous in compa- 

 rison 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 backwarks. 

 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 dimin- 

 ishes, 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 visi- 





