142 INSECTA. 
the intermediate one, which is larger, widened, and emarginated or 
bifid at its extremity. The mandibles are strong and dentated. 
The clypeus is large. Underneath the labrum is a little piece in 
the form of a ligula analogous to that observed by Reaumur in the 
Bombi, and which M. Savigny styles the epipharynx. With the 
exception of a very few species, the superior wings have three com- 
plete cubital cells. The females and neuters are armed with an ex- 
tremely powerful and venomous sting. Several of them form com- 
munities composed of the three sorts of individuals. 
The larve are vermiform, destitute of feet and enclosed separately 
in a cell where they sometimes live on the bodies of Insects placed 
there by the mother at the time she deposited the egg, and some- 
times on the nectar of flowers, juices of fruits and animal matters, 
elaborated in the stomach of the mother or that of the neuters, who 
feed them daily. 
M. de Saint-Hilaire brought a species from the southern pro- 
vinces of Brazil, which amasses a considerable store of honey, 
that is sometimes poisonous, like that of our common Bee(1). 
A first subgenus, 
Crramius, Lat. Klug, 
Which has been the subject of a Monograph by one of our most 
celebrated entomologists, Doctor Kliig, forms an exception to the 
general characters of this tribe in the superior wings, which are 
extended, and in the number of their cubital ‘cells, of which there 
are but two. In addition to this, the labial palpi are longer than 
those of the maxillz. 
But four species are yet known, two of which are from the 
Cape of Good Hope, and the remainder from the south of Eu- 
rope; one of these latter—the /ustfanicus—appears to us to be 
allied by its natural affinities to Masaris(2). 
In all the following subgenera the superior wings are folded, and 
present three complete cubital cells. 
Sometimes the mandibles are much longer than broad, and ap- 
proximated anteriorly in the form of a rostrum. The ligula is nar- 
row and elongated; the clypeus is almost cordiform or oval, with the 
point anterior and more or less truncated. 
(1) Mem. du Mus. d’Hist. Nat. 
(2) Lat., Consid. Gener. sur l’Ordre des Crust., des Arach., et des Insect., 329; 
Kliig, Entom. Monog. 219, et seq. 
