30 BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



of Tuhuliferec , but this view has not been generally accepted. The 

 Chrysididee are known as Ruby-tailed Flies, Emerald Wasps, &c. 

 Some of the European species are a lovely rose or flame colour. 

 We have a great number of specimens in our collection, but their 

 classification, even into genera, is very obscure. The Chrysididee 

 are all parasitio, ordinarily on other hymenoptera, the solitary Mason 

 Wasps being specially victimized. In order to provide for their 

 young they resort to "lurking-house trespass." The ichneumons 

 by means of their ovipositors pierce the skin of the victimized larvse 

 in whose body the eggs are laid and on whom the ichneumon larvae, 

 wheu hatched, prey. The Chrysididee act quite differently. The 

 female hunts about until she finds, say, a wasp building its mud nest, 

 and there she sits down to wait. I have watched the manoeuvres of 

 a chrysis during nearly an hoar. Each time the wasp quitted the 

 nest to seek more building material, chrysis advancad rapidly to take 

 stock of progress made, retiring each time to her lurking place 

 about six inches off. At last the wasp had completed her nest and 

 put the finishing touches, and started off to search for the larvas 

 with which it was to be provisioned. This time chrysis, after enter- 

 ing and surveying the nest, came out, but instead of returning to her 

 lurking place, she backed into the newly-made nest, and no doubt, 

 laid her egg after which she came out and flew away. When a 

 chrysis has thus laid her egg' in a newly-finished nest, it is unsus- 

 piciously provisioned by the builder who also lays her eggs therein. 

 The larva of chrysis, however, hatches first and consumes all the 

 provision, and the rightful occupant thus dies of starvation, and the 

 cell which should have produced a wasp produces a chrysis. 



The second sub-order, viz., the Aculeeda (or Stingers) is divided 

 into four groups or main divisions, viz.: — 



1. Heterogyna containing the ants. 



2. Fossores (Diggers), containing all the rest, except 



3. Diploptera, i. e., the Wasps. 



4. Anthophila, i. e., the Bees. 



The Heterogyna comprise only the Formicidce or ants, and are 

 divided into the following three families : — 



1. Formicinw, which are ants proper and have no sting, but 

 many of which bite severely, as, for example, the common red, 2Fco-~ 

 -phila smaragdina, who sews up mango leaves for a habitation, and 

 seem* to be able intuitively to select for attack the softest part of 

 any person invading his haunts. The common big black ant of 



