7 8 PLATE CCXII. 



The caufe of this uncertainty may be partly attributed to our entire 

 ignorance of their manner of life or transformations. Some of the 

 Mutillas have wings, and others are without. Authors have con- 

 fidered the apterous Infecls as the females, and the winged kind as 

 the males, which opinion is countenanced by numberlefs inftances in 

 almoft every clafs of Infecls. Others have however maintained 

 that both males and females were winged, and that the apterous In- 

 fects were neuters, prefuming in fupport of fuch opinion, that the 

 Mutillae lived in focieties like the Wafps, Ants, and Bees. — From 

 obfervations on a number of exotic fpecies of this tribe, we have 

 no doubt that the winged Infecls are males, and the apterous kind 

 females, 



Yeats alludes to three fpecies of Mutillae that have been found in 

 England, but names only the Mutillae Europaea ; and this is the 

 only kind we have ever found. We have taken it on a fandy path- 

 way, near the entrance of Coombe Wood, Surry. 



PLATE 



