160 



NATURAL IIISTOllY OF ARTHROPODS. 



While the ant-lion's pit foniicl by Mr. Emerton was a solitary one, no others being 

 found, Mr. Birge records liis discovery of a large colony of ant-lions in a sheltered, 

 sandy place, under a cliff, in Albany County, New York. In August, 1871, the colony 

 numbered rather more tlian six hundred individuals, but on July G, 1872, there were 

 scarcely half that number. Another colony, at a different localit}', but in the same 

 county, observed in 1871, consisted of some three hundred members. Mr. Birge 

 remarked that the ant-lion did not, so far as his observation went, "throw up sand to 

 bring down its prey, but throws it up in every direction in order to keep its jaws free 



to seize the insect when it roaches the bottom of the den." Further on he says, in the 

 most crowded portions of the colony " the chief employment of the insects was to throw 

 out the dirt which their active neighljors uei'e depositing on their own premises." 



In Xtrnopt(!ra con., a species from the Mediterranean region of Europe, the fore- 

 wings are very ))road, Avhile the hinder ones are greatly el(.)ngate, so that they suggest 

 a pair of oars. 



The last tyjie of tliis family is Asculaphus., which superficially bears a resemblance 

 to a butterfly, since the long, slender antenn* end in a conspicuous knob. The head 

 is large and hairv, with large, romid eyes, the largo wings are often highly tinted with 

 yellow and black spots and bands, while the abdomen is short and thick, like that of 



