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NE UR OP T E R À .
M Y R M E L E O N P A R D A E I S .
P A N T H E R M Y R M E L E O N .
G EN ERIC C IlAllACT ER.
Mouth armed with jaws, two teeth and four long palpi. Tail o f tlie male furniilied with forceps or tW9
ftraight filaments. Antennae club-lhaped, length o f the thorax. Wings defleaed.
S P E C IF IC CIIA IlACTEll.
Wings whitifli fprinkled with black. Thighs yellow.
M y r m e l e o n P a r d a l i s : alis albis': p u n a is nigris fparfis, femoribus flavis.
Fab. Em . Sy/l. T . 2. p . Q2. fp . 2.— UNFIGURED.
Few fpecies of the Myrmeleon genus have been difcovered. Linnaeus defcribes only five, and thoic
are chiefly natives o f Europe. Fabricius adds feven more, befides three others in the genera A fc a la p h u s ,
in the E n tom o lo g ìa S y J le ju a tic a , and particularly two from India, in the cabinet o f Sir J o s e p h B a n k s , Bart.
M . P a r d a lis and M . P u n é ìa tu m - , thefe are the only Indian Myrmeleons hitherto afcertalned; to the Ento-
mologift they are equally interefting as new and unfigured fpecies, but M . P a r d a lis is much fuperlor in
beauty to the other. T h e charaderiftic diftindion o f M. Pu n d atum is die alternate black and while
fpecks, or interrupted dafhes in the reticulations o f the wings. M. Pardalis is redculated alfo with delicate
browniih nerves, and its general colour a fine yellow, elegantly barred with tranfverfe lli'eaks of
brown.—From th e coast o f Coromandel.
The Natural Hiftory o f the Mj'rmeleoii-larva is curious, and has been traced in fome o f the European
kinds by R c a tim . R o e fc l, and others, particularly in die M . F o rm ic a -L c o of Geoffroy; this creature,
among other peculiarities, is furniftied in the front with a large pair of forceps, with which It takes its"'
prey. I t forms circular cavities in the fand, and concealing itfe lf In the center with only the forceps
above the furface catches the weaker or unwary infeds that come within the verge o f its ceil.
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