TossoRES. -TNSECTS.- 



-MnTirxiD.E. 



185 



hasiu of vinegar. As far as Mr. Savage observed, 

 frcsli meat of all kinds, and fresh oils, are their favourite 

 food. In the cupboards they touch not milli or sugar 

 and pastry. 



Group— FOSSORES. 



Tlie tribe FossouES is so called from the digging 

 or burrowing habits of most of the insects composing 

 it. The insects of this tribe are of two sexes, which 

 are both furnished with wings. The legs of the females 

 are usually adapted for burrowing, and are never fitted, 

 as in the bees, for collecting pollen. The hind tarsi 

 have the first joint as narrow as the following ones. 

 The collar is sometimes prolonged on each side, as far 

 as the insertion of the first pair of wings. 



Family— SCOLIADiE. 



In this family the females have the legs generally 

 very strong and thickly spinose, or densely ciliated ; the 

 femora are arcuated at the extremitj', and compressed; 

 the antennte are stout, and shorter than the thorax. 

 In the typical genus {ScoUa) the eyes are notched. 

 Scolia quadrimaculata is figured on Plate 7, fig. 9. 



the group; there is a large splash of reddish-yel'io . en 

 the upper wing. 



The cocoa palms of Madagascar are destroyed by the 

 grub of a large blackish-browai beetle, thicker than 

 your thumb, and about half its length. Tlie grub is 

 yellowish- white, with a darker hind part and brown 

 liead. Groves of cocoa-nut trees that were planted at 

 Saint Marie, and for a hundred years brought in great 

 revenue to France, have been destroyed by the larva of 

 this beetle — Orycles Sindar is its name. Two other 

 species are found in Madagascar and elsewhere, which, 

 when they abound, do great mischief to date palms 

 (Phamix dactylifcra) and other palms, such as the 

 Orcodoxa oler-acca, all figured in the great book of 

 Martins. 



The trunks are attacked bj' the insect, which eats 

 large holes, and these holes let in air and water, and 

 other things destructive to vegetable gi'owths. The 

 larva of the Scolia here figured (fig. 58) attacks and eats 

 these larvfE. It is very sluggish, but does its work 

 admirably. It has twelve segments ; each ring is 

 furnished with stigmata, except the last. Its cocoon is 

 very thick. These insects appear to have the same 

 habits in all parts of the world, for instance Passeriui's 

 Scolia fla%'ifrons preys on Oryctes nasicornis in Europe, 

 as has been observed at Florence. 



Scolia oryctophaga. 



The Scolia here figured, with its larvje (sec fi^js. 57 

 and 58), was described by Mens. Ch. Coquerel,* who 

 named it Oryctophafja (Eater of the beetle Oryctes). 



Fig. 58. 



Larva of Scolia oryctophiga. 



It is a native of Madagascar, a fine black fellow, witli 

 purplish iridescence on its wings, like many others of 



♦ Annales de la Societi? Entom. de France, third series, 

 vol. iii., Plate 10, fig. 2; 1855. 

 Vou II. 



Family— SAPYGIDiE. 



In this family the logs are williout spines; the 

 antennae are elongated, and usually more or less 

 clubbed ; the eyes are notched. Two species are 

 described as British; one species {Sapyga 2>unclatci) is 

 met with about the end of May running on palings and 

 rails, apparently looking out for the burrows of wood- 

 boring bees. They store up the larvai of Lepidoptera 

 for their young brood. The larva spins a tough brown 

 cocoon, in which it passes its pupa state. It has been 

 known to use snail shells instead of making a burrow. 



Family— MUTlLLIDiE {Vdvct Ants). 



These insects may be described as solitary ants. 

 There are two sexes, male and female. The males are 

 winged, the females are apterous. The legs of the 

 females are stout, and fitted for burrowing; the tibiaj 

 are spinose ; the tarsi are ciliated ; the antennaj are 

 filiform or setaceous. In the males the last segment 

 of the abdomen is usually furnished with teeth or spines. 

 The Mutillida; are met with in all countries. One 

 was brought by Sir Jolm llichardson from the Great 

 Bear Lake in North America {M.frlijida). We figure 

 the Mutllla coccinea — (Plate 7, fig. 5). In the warmer 

 regions of the world they abound, and some of the 

 South American species are of considerable size, and 

 have terrible stings. 



MUTILLA EUEOP^IA.— Mr. Drcwsen, in the St( Uin 

 Journal for 1847, has given an account of the habits of 

 this species, which is met with in this country. This 

 Danish naturalist took a nest of that humble bee known 

 as the Bombiis ScrimsJiiraniis ; in it ho found only two 

 worker bees, but as many as seventy-six specimens of 

 Mutilla Europcea, of which forty-four were males and 



2 A 



