MYRMELEONITES. 325 



42. MYRMELEON PERITUS. 



Niger, robustus, linearis ; caput album, nigro maculatum, antice 

 testaceum ; antennae subclavata ; thorax testaceo bivittatus ; 

 prothorax linearis, multo latior quam longior ; pedes validi ; 

 alee longce angustce sublineares, apice oblique truncate, fusco 

 guttatce et strigatce, antica subfuscce, posticce hyalines. 



This, and the following Myrmeleon form a group in the genus, 

 and are easily distinguished from the preceding species by the great 

 length and peculiar form of their wings. 



Black, stout, linear, clothed with hoary hairs: head white; 

 vertex very convex and prominent, with a slight longitudinal fur- 

 row, and with an oval grayish black spot on the disk, and with 

 some black dots on each side ; a black spot at the base of each an- 

 tenna; front and face testaceous: antennae subclavate, a little more 

 than half the length of the thorax : prothorax linear, much broader 

 than long, with a broad white, or testaceous white stripe, including 

 a black dot on each side : mesothorax and metathorax with an irre- 

 gular and interrupted testaceous stripe on each side: abdomen 

 about half the length of the wings: legs very stout; spurs much 

 curved, longer than the first joint of the tarsus: wings very long 

 and narrow, almost linear from near the base to the tips, where 

 they are obliquely truncated, and very slightly and in some cases 

 almost imperceptibly hooked near the fore border ; stigma whitish, 

 small, indistinct; veins black, here and there with testaceous bands, 

 or wholly testaceous, or white ; marginal region broad and with nu- 

 merous transverse veinlets at the tips of the wings : fore-wings 

 pale brown, completely covered with dark brown dots which are 

 largest and most regular on the subcostal region, having also some 

 dark brown streaks on the disk at two-thirds of the length and at 

 the tips, and a few little spots the hind border ; subcostal region 

 broad, each areolet with two transverse oblique veinlets near the 

 base, and with one or two from thence till near the stigma : hind- 

 wings hyaline, a very little shorter and not narrower than the fore- 

 wings, pale brown towards the tips, and with a pale brown inter- 

 rupted band near the middle ; some dark brown spots along the 

 hind border, and one on the disk at one-fourth of the length from 

 the base ; a long dark brown streak near the hind border beyond 

 the middle, one opposite to it in the disk, one at the tip, -and on the 

 fore border a larger one which is partly interrupted by the stigma ; 

 some of these marks are occasionally indistinct or obsolete, and the 



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