NEUROPTERA, 195 
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 extre- 
mity. The palate of the mouth is elevated in the form of an epiglot- 
tis; 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 
Myrmeteon, Lin., 
Of which Fabricius has made two. 
Myrme eon, Fab., 
Or Myrmeleon proper, where the antennz enlarge insensibly, are 
almost fusiform, are hooked at the extremity, and much shorter than 
the body; the abdomen is long and linear. 
M.formicarium, L.; Rees., Insect., III, xvii—xx. About an 
inch long ; blackish spotted with yellowish; 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 Fourmilion. 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 al- 
most 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 ex- 
posed to the south. It arrives at the intended scene of its opera- 
tions 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 toa 
* For the other species, see Lat., Gen. Crust. et Insect., III, p. 190; Oliv., 
Encyc. Méthod., article Myrmeleon. See also, both for this and the following genus, 
the work of M. Toussaint Charpentier, already quoted. 
