498 
Observations on the various Insects 
tliorax of a lovely greerij more or less tinged with blue or yellow, 
and exquisitely shagreened ; the former is large and transverse ; 
the face more orbicular ; on each side is a dark oval eye, and on 
the crown three ocelli in the form of a triangle; antennae nearly as 
long as the head and thorax, inserted in the middle of the face, 
fililbrm, flail-shaped, hairy and brown, composed of thirteen joints, 
the first being long and naked, and forming an angle with the 
following, second poar-shaped, third and fourth like little rings, 
six followingr oblong, the remainder forminjj an elongated conical 
compressed club ; mouth with two denticulated jaws, four palpi, 
Sec. ■* thorax not so broad as the head, but thrice as lonsf, and 
oblong; scutelhmi large, rounded, and convex ; abdomen black, 
smooth, and shining; the base and sides metallic green ; the back 
violet, not so long as the thorax, strap-shaped, concave above, nar- 
rowed at the base, the apex pointed; four wings transparent, 
iridesccnf, and pubescent; superior ample, with a subcostal brown 
nervure extending to the middle, where it becomes the costal 
nervure, but does not reach the tip, and beyond the middle is a 
short clavate branch; inferior wings much smaller, and nerveless, 
excepting a short subcostal one ; six legs, slender, and bright 
ochreous; coxae bright green, hinder stout; thighs pitchy, anterior 
with the apex and a stripe beneath ochreous, the others tii)ped with 
ochre; tarsi five-jointed, anterior often dusky, the others, with the 
fifth joint, the pulvilli, and claws, black: length 1^ line; expanse 
nearly 3 lines. (Fig. 38, the male, magnified.) 
Such is the description of the male ; and it is a little remarkable 
that the female seems to ba unknown, all the bred specimens being 
of the former sex. There are probably seven or eight hundred 
species of these insects, which have been described as inhabitants of 
Great Britain ;f iheir increase is prodigious, as already shown in a 
former Essay; J; and there is scarcely a blade of grass, during 
the summer months, that is not ornamented with these beautilid 
little creatures — • 
" Tlic green myriads in the peopled grass," — 
which may compete with the humming-birds in the brilliancy of 
their colours. 
From the stems of barley containing tlie puptc of the Oscinis 
7-astator, I bred a third parasite, much smaller than cither of the 
foregoing, and Ibund many more upon the windows of my room, 
where the plants were ])laced, which no doubt had escaped. 
They were all females, belonging to the Order Hymenoptera, 
'•■ For the dissections see ('urtis's IJrit. Ent., ])]. IGG. 
■|' Walker in tlic Entom. Mag. and his Monogiaplis. 
X Royal Agr. Jour., vol. iii. p. 311. 
