THE MONEDTJLA. 147 



began to dash past me with that peculiar menacing sound which 

 always heralds an attack. Taking warning by the sound, I 

 retired quietly to the further end of the garden, but was followed 

 even there by one pertinacious enemy, who at last made a dash 

 at my face, and passed on, leaving its sting as a memorial of 

 its anger. I afterwards discovered that a handkerchief in my 

 breast-coat-pocket retained a faint scent of eau-de-cologne. Now, 

 if the assailants had been Wasps instead of bees, a bystander 

 would assuredly have considered the attack as a proof of the 

 malignant nature of the Wasp. 



Befoee taking leave of the earth-burrowing hymenoptera, it 

 will be necessary to mention two very remarkable insects which 

 are described by Mr. Bates, in his well-known " Naturalist in 

 the Eiver Amazon." Neither of the insects have any popular 

 name. 



The first is called Monedula signata, and is a handsome- 

 looking insect, very much resembling an ordinary wasp, and 

 ornamented, like that insect, with bold black marks on the 

 thorax and abdomen. The antennae, however, are twisted, and 

 at once prove that the creature is but distantly related to the true 

 wasp. The burrows of this insect seem to be made only in the 

 sandbanks which project above the surface of the river ; so that 

 they would not be discovered by ordinary travellers. Fortunately 

 for the residents in that part of the country, the Monedula stores 

 its nest with one of the most obnoxious insects that haunt the 

 Amazon river. This is the Motuca fly {Hadaus lepidotus), an 

 insignificant-looking creature, smaller than an ordinary house 

 fly, and of a bronze-black colour, with the wings of an ashy 

 brown, except a whitish spot near the tips. 



This fly belongs to the well-known family of Tabanidfe, and, 

 like them, is furnished with a very formidable apparatus, by 

 means of which it obtains its food. Whenever the Motuca can 

 attack a human being, it dashes at him, settles, and in a moment 

 drives a broad, sharp-edged lancet through the skin, cutting 

 quite a gash, and causing the blood to flow fast. Fortunately 

 the wound is not very painful, and it is possible that the flowing 

 blood may be useful in washing out any poison that has been 

 injected. It is of a sluggish nature, and can be easily taken 

 with the fingers — a very happy circumstance, inasmuch as a 



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