34 Mr. John Curtis's Descriptions 



underside) ; eyes invisible ; clypeus deeply indented, forming 

 eight teeth, with a ninth in the centre, and several long rigid 

 hairs (fig. 3) ; mandibles crossing, long, slender, curved and very 

 acute (fig. 4) ; maxillae forming a long horny lobe, arising from 

 a stout scape, terminated by a claw internally. Palpi triarticulate? 

 (fig. 5, with the palpus broken). Mentum horny, narrowed at 

 the middle, terminated by a large ciliated lip, with a minute biar- 

 ticulate palpus, attached to a stout scape at each angle; basal joint 

 oblong, second conical (fig. 6). Antenna; inserted on each side of 

 the clypeus, not very remote, slender and four-jointed (fig. 2 a), 

 Prothorax attaciied by a short neck, a little broader than the head 

 towards the base, subquadratc, the anterior angles rounded; two 

 following segments a little broader, transverse. Abdomen soft 

 and nine-jointed, with eight distinct stigma, ochreous-white, 

 broader than the trunk at the middle, tapering towards the extre- 

 mity, each segment having an oval fulvous spot on each side, 

 forming two rows down the back ; these spots are punctured, 

 with minute tubercles, and there are several punctured ferruginous 

 tubercles on the hinder margin of each spot ; terminal segment 

 conical (fig. 7), producing a drooping cylindrical ochreous pro-leg 

 (fig. 7 o). with a jointed divaricating style on each side at its base; 

 first joint long and stoutish, second shorter and slender (fig. 7 h). 

 Legs long, slender, spiny (fig. 8, a middle leg) ; coxae large, tro- 

 chanters small, thigh long and very spiny beneath; tibia shorter 

 and slenderer, but spiny inside ; claws long, slender and very 

 acute. 



The following is Professor Henslow's account of this larva : — 

 *' I took about thirty or forty specimens of Velleius from the hor- 

 net's nest, by placing a bowl under it, into which most of them 

 fell within a month of the time after it had been brought home 

 (18th October). Some I picked off the lowest and exposed 

 lamina of the comb, as they were actively traversing it, and poking 

 their heads into the cells in search of food ; most of these were 

 placed in a glass jar among rotten wood in a powdered state. 

 They burrowed in this, and I could see many of them alive in 

 March, each in a separate cavity, which he had formed for himself 

 against the bottom or side of the jar. I am sorry, and rather 

 ashamed to say, that my over-care for their welfare destroyed 

 them. Thinking they were getting too dry, I poured in a little 

 water once or twice, and, after an absence of three or four days 

 on one occasion, I found they were dead." * 



• The Zoologist, vol. vii. p. 2585. 



