PLATE CXXXIX. 



Myrmeleon LTBELLULOIDES : alls griseis fasco maculatis, cor- 

 pore nigro flavoque variegato. Fabr. Spec. Ins. 

 1. p. 308. n. l.—Fabr. Maiit. Ins, 1. p. 249. 

 n. 1. — Gmel Linn. Syst. Nat. t. I. p. 5. 2642. 

 238. 1. 



Hemerobius Libelluloides. Li?m. Mus. Lud. Ulr. 401. 



The present insect may be regarded as a remarkably perfect 

 example of the Cape Myrmeleon, or Lion-Ant, long since named by 

 Linnaeus Libel/uloides, or rather as a curious variety of the species, 

 for it differs in some slight degree from other specimens that have 

 fallen under our remark. The abdomen is usually of an uniform 

 brown or testaceous hue, not yellow as in the subject now before us, 

 and the lines of black, so conspicuous in the present specimen, are in 

 some instances wholly wanting. . Others have the black abdominal 

 lines at the sides without the dorsal one. That delineated by Sulzer 

 has the body brown without any dark lineations. Linnasus, indeed, 

 speaks of the abdomen in this species being black and yellow spotted, 

 but had the specimen he described been lineated with black upon a 

 yellow ground, he would no doubt have expressed it otherwise. In 

 the specimen under our consideration the legs are less hirsute, and 

 the spots of the wings somewhat less conspicuous than usual ; yet, 

 notwithstanding these distinctions, we can consider it only as a pro- 

 bable variety of the species, or as an insect in a condition more perfect 

 or in a better state of preservation than those which have occurred 

 to the observation of the naturalists already mentioned. 



