


56 THE INSECT WORLD. 
The genus Anthrax, belonging to this family, has a different form 
to Bombylius. The body is much less hairy; the trunk is short 
and concealed in the mouth ; the wings, 
which are very large, are clothed, at least 
in the principal genus, m a garb of 
mourning sufficiently remarkable, in which 
the combinations of black and white are 
admirably diversified. 
“Here,” says M. Macquart, “ the line 
which separates the two colours is 
straight, there it represents gradations, in 
other cases it is deeply sinuous. Some- 
times the dark part shows transparent 
points, or the glassy part dark spots. 
This sombre garb, added to the velvet 
black of the body, gives the Anthrax a 
most elegant appearance; and while 
resting on the corolla of the honey- 
suckle and hawthorn to suck the juice, 
form a most striking contrast, and set 
forth its beauty no less than that of 

Fig. 36.—Bombylius major. 
those lovely flowers.”’ 
Anthrax sinuata is common in Europe. 
The family of the Syrphici includes three remarkable types, 
which we could not pass over in silence. 
They are Vermileo, Volucella, and Helo- 
philus. 
Vermileo de Geert (Fig. 37), which 
inhabits the central and southern parts 
of France, is four or five lunes in 
length. Its face is white ; its forehead 
grey, bordered with black; the thorax 
. of a yellowish grey, with four brown 
AS ae Maace is DT stripes in the male; the abdomen 
light yellow, spotted with black ; and the wings glassy. 
The larva of the Vermileo has a thin cylindrical body, capable 
of bending itself in every direction; a conical head, armed with 
two horny points; and the last segment elongated, flat, ele- 

