Insects at home; being a popular account of insects, their structure, habits and transformations . gs are long, and the abdomen is at-tached to the thorax by a short footstalk. On Woodcut 1, is shown one of these insects, called Pompilus fuscus,slightly enlarged, so as to show better the formation of thewing. In this genus the head is wide, and set transversely onthe thorax, and the three ocelli are placed in a triangle on theforehead. The antennae of the female form a curl at the end,as represented in the illustration, while those of the male areonly bent. The front wings have one
Insects at home; being a popular account of insects, their structure, habits and transformations . gs are long, and the abdomen is at-tached to the thorax by a short footstalk. On Woodcut 1, is shown one of these insects, called Pompilus fuscus,slightly enlarged, so as to show better the formation of thewing. In this genus the head is wide, and set transversely onthe thorax, and the three ocelli are placed in a triangle on theforehead. The antennae of the female form a curl at the end,as represented in the illustration, while those of the male areonly bent. The front wings have one marginal and three sub-marginal cells. The hind legs are long, and their claws havea little pad between them. The abdomen is longer in the 342 INSECTS AT HOME. female than in the male. At Fig. a is shown the maxillarypalpus, and at Fig. b the labium. These insects are all burrowers, and vary much in the soilwhich they prefer for their tunnels. The present species pre-fers such soil as is found on sandy heaths, and, as it is plentifulall over Eiigiand, may be captured almost anywhere. The XIXIM. 1. Pompilus fuscus. 2. Astata boops. 3. Mellinns arvensig. 4. Crabro Cerceris arvensis. a. Pompilns, maxilla and palpus. b. Do., labium. c. Mellinus,mandible. d. Do., labium. e. Do., maxilla and palpus. /. Crabro, larva. g. Astata,head of female. object of the burrow is to form a retreat for its young; and,when the tunnel is formed, the insect lays an egg in it, nearlyfills the hole with spiders, and then closes its mouth. Theyoung Pompilus, when hatched, begins to feed upon the spiders,and the mother insect is taught by instinct to place in thenest just so many spiders that, when the last is eaten, thelarva is ready to change into its pupal state. HABITS OF THE ASTATA. 343 All the Pompili are pretty insects. The general colour ofthis species is slightly shining black. The first three segmentsof the abdomen are rust-red, each having a narrow black wings arc d
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectentomology, bookyear1
