Page:Jardine Naturalist's library Entomology.djvu/326

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
320
SYSTEMATIC ARRANGEMENT

singular insects, and he concluded that they belong to the hymenopterous order. This he was induced to do chiefly by the circumstance of their being parasitic, in the larva state, on the bodies of various kinds of bees and wasps (Andrenidæ and Vespidæ). The larva and pupa of Stylops are figured at B and C, Pl. XXXIII. They live between the abdominal segments of the bee, as represented in fig. A, a b. An interesting account of the discovery of an English species of this order will be found in Kirby's Monographia Apum Angliæ, II. 113, and a full description of the order, in his Memoir in the XI. volume of the Linnæan Transactions.

As at present known, the order may be regarded as comprehending four genera. These may be distinguished by the antennæ: Halictophagus has four branches in these organs, in all the rest only two exist. In Xenos the antennæ are inarticulate; in Stylops the outer branch is flattened and three-jointed, this is likewise the case with Elenchus, but the joints are very long and slender.


STYLOPS DALII.

Plate XXXIII. Fig. 1.

Curtis' Brit. Ent. Vol. v. fol. 226.

Body of a deep velvet black. Scutellum at the base, and abdomen at the sides, ochre yellow; wings white and iridescent; legs brownish. Length about a line and a half.

Obtained from Andrena barbilabris by Mr. Dale, after whom the insect is named.