EUPTILON ORNATUM. Viride, thoracis puncto antico abdomineque lineâ
dorsali nigris, alis hyalinis venis numerosissimis, strigisque duabus
obliquis obscuris. (Expans. Alar. circ. 3 unc.)
SYN. Hemerobius ornatus, _Drury, App. vol._ 2.
HABITAT: Dinwiddie, in Virginia.
Head dark green. Antennæ pectinated or combed. Eyes black. Thorax dark
green, with a black patch next the head. Abdomen dark green, with small
rings of yellow, and a small black line running along the upper side from
the thorax to the extremity. Wings membranaceous and pellucid, or
transparent, of equal length; the superior ones having two small
transverse black stripes placed near their posterior edges, at about half
an inch distance from each other.
Latreille, in his Genera Crustaceorum et Insectorum, Vol. 3. p. 199, after
describing the genus Chauliodes belonging to the family Hemerobiidæ,
observes, "Congenerica videntur insecta a Dom. Drury iconibus vivis
expressa, tom. 1. Pl. 46. Fig. 2. 3." I have never seen the present
species, but from the admirable accuracy of Moses Harris (by whom the
figures were drawn) it is evident that the neuration of the wings of this
species is identical with that of Myrmeleon, agreeing especially with the
insect represented at Fig. 4. of this plate, and exhibiting the irregular
longitudinal nerve below the subcostal nerve and the strong furcate nerve
running along the middle of the wing; whilst, at the same time, the
neuration is quite unlike that of Fig. 3. Hence I have no hesitation in
placing this insect in the family Myrmeleonidæ. It however disagrees with
the genera of which that family is composed, viz. Myrmeleon, Linn.
(Myrmecoleon, Burm.) Ascalaphus, Fabr. and Nymphes, Leach, in having
bipectinated antennæ, so that I have been compelled to establish a new
genus for its reception. Can it be possible that, according to the not
uncommon practice of the time, the specimen had been mended, and that
pectinated antennæ had been substituted in the stead of the ordinary ones
of a Myrmeleon?