G26 INSECTS AT HOIME. 



remain ; and they bad become so scarce in the month of 

 September, that with difficulty seven or eight specimens were 

 jirocured. 



' The servant at one of the houses in Clifton Terrace, 

 Margate, says that she had to go to all the windows with 

 a dust-pan and brush, to take them away from the window- 

 ledges ; and I have been given to understand that it was the 

 same in most of the houses at the place. They went by 

 strange names, but the most common one was that of " horse- 

 stingers," from their appearance. 



' You have already noticed flights of this class of insects 

 in the " Zoologist ; " and Mr. F. Smith, of the British Museum, 

 tells me that he saw, some years since, the line of surf on th« 

 beach for miles covered with the dead bodies of Syrphus 

 pyrastrU so that they might have been taken up by shovels- 

 full. This was at Bournemouth, and the insects had been 

 drowned in the sea, and their remains thus cast ashore. The 

 same thing, he tells me, was observed to occur at the back of 

 the Isle of Wight, which is not far off. Hence these flights 

 would appear to be not uncommon, although when they do 

 occur they are worthy of note.' 



The next family is that of the Conopidse, which are repre- 

 sented by a very pretty insect, called Gonops vesicidans, which 

 is shown on Plate XX. Fig. 2. 



In all the Conopidse the pro-boscis is always long and pro- 

 jecting, elbowed, and siphon-shaped ; while it varies in form 

 from conical and cylindrical to thread-like. In this organ 

 both the mandibles and the lancet which represent the maxillae 

 are absent, and only those portions remain which represent the 

 upper lip and tongue ; so that all the Conopidse are perfectly 

 harmless, and cannot even prey upon other insects. 



This species bears the most extraordinary resembk^^ce to 

 the solitary wasps belonging to the genus Odynerus. The 

 thorax of this insect is black, and the base of the abdomen is 

 orange, the remainder being black and yellow, arranged as 

 shown in the illustration. The wings are transparent, and are 

 clouded with brown. 



In its larval state this is one of the many parasitic insects, 

 living in the interior of the humble-bee. Like the Stylops, 

 which has already been described in the course of this work, 



