  MYRMELEON TORRIDUM.Plate XLI. Order: Neuroptera. Section: Filicornes. Family: MyrmeleonidÆ, Leach. Genus. Myrmeleon, Linn. &c. Myrmeleon Torridum. Capite thoraceque fulvescentibus, line dorsali nigrÂ, hoc griseo-pubescenti, abdomine fusco, alis fusco-punctatis et maculatis, maculis posticarum majoribus et versus apicem crucem irregularem formantibus. (Expans. Alar. 6 unc. 9 lin.) Syn. Myrmeleon Libelluloides var., Drury, App. vol. 3. Habitat: Sierra Leone. AntennÆ black, slender, and thickest at the extremities. Head, neck, and thorax yellowish brown, with a black longitudinal stripe running along the middle. Four palpi, two of which are short; the other two long, slender, and knobbed at the extremities. Thorax nearly covered with grey hairs. Abdomen yellowish brown; but, when the insect was living, was probably green. Wings of equal length, the anterior being broadest, all marked with a great number of red-brown spots, and clouds of various shapes and sizes, and appearing to be composed of fine lattice-work like gauze, and perfectly transparent where they are not clouded. Legs nearly of equal length, having two strong tibial spurs. This is the insect referred to in the observations upon Myrmeleon Libelluloides figured in Vol. 1. tab. 46. fig. 1. as having been regarded by Drury and Fabricius as a variety of that South-EuropÆan species. That they are specifically distinct both in their habitat and characters will not, I think, be doubted. The peculiar dilatation of the extremity of the posterior wings is a curious character not found in the Libelluloides. |
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