. A treatise on some of the insects injurious to vegetation . Insect pests. THE CONOPIANS. 611 resembling it is figured in Griffith's translation of Cuvier's "Animal Kingdom," under the-name of Myopa nigripennis. It is found on fences around gardens in May and June. It sits with its wings half spread, moves slowly, and flies heavily. My Sphecomyia valida, though rather shorter than the preceding, has a thicker body. Its color is brownish yellow, and it is striped with brown. The wings are trans- parent, and are mottled with small, dusky spots. Some of the Conopians (Conopidce) still
. A treatise on some of the insects injurious to vegetation . Insect pests. THE CONOPIANS. 611 resembling it is figured in Griffith's translation of Cuvier's "Animal Kingdom," under the-name of Myopa nigripennis. It is found on fences around gardens in May and June. It sits with its wings half spread, moves slowly, and flies heavily. My Sphecomyia valida, though rather shorter than the preceding, has a thicker body. Its color is brownish yellow, and it is striped with brown. The wings are trans- parent, and are mottled with small, dusky spots. Some of the Conopians (Conopidce) still more closely resemble slender-bodied wasps than the preceding Sphex-flies. Oonops sagittaria (Fig. 269) of Say (nigricornis, Wiedemann) might almost be mistaken for a species of JEumenes. Its hind body is very slender and cylindrical next to the thorax, and swells out behind. Its antennae are long, and thickened towards the end. Its proboscis is very long and slender, elbowed at the base, and extends far beyond the head. This fly is of a black color; the rings of the hind body are edged with white; the face is yellow; the legs are brownish yellow, shaded with black on the thighs; and the wings are black, with two uncolored and wavy spaces on the inner margin. Its body is five eighths of an inch long, and its wings expand rather more than three quarters of an inch. This fly may be found sucking the honey of flowers in June and July. The Greeks gave the name of Conors to some stinging fly or gnat. The Conopians undergo their transformations in the bodies of humble-bees, their young subsisting on the fat contained within the abdomen of their luckless victims. A host of flies, forming nearly one third of the whole num- ber of species in the order Dipteea, will be found to have a short and soft proboscis, ending with large fleshy lips, enclos- ing only two bristles, and capable of being drawn up within the cavity of the mouth. Their antenna? are generally short, hang down over the f
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, bookpubl, booksubjectinsectpests
