230 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



a repetition here. He says : ' ' The habits of this insect may 

 be inferred from the peculiar organization of the male. From 

 both sexes being found in the closed cells of the bee, and from 

 the absence of a long ovipositor in the female we may conclude 

 that the eggs are deposited while the nest is being provisioned, 

 or immediately before it is closed ; and that, like the true 

 Ichneumons, the parent either plunges her eggs into the body 

 of the newly hatched bee-larva or attaches them to its skin. 

 The bee-larva, like many other species similarly circumstanced, 

 continues to feed and grow, and supply nourishment to the par 

 asites ; and by the time it has consumed the whole of its pro 

 vision these also are far advanced in growth. When the young 

 bee is entirely destroyed these are matured and prepared for 

 their changes to the state of nymph, which they assume lying 

 loosely in the cell, without spinning separate cocoons." 



' ' From the circumstance that although both sexes are found 

 moving freely in the cell, the male is by far the least active, 

 and especially from the fact that his organs of vision are merely 

 single ocelli, instead of large compound eyes, as in the other sex, 

 I am led to the conclusion that impregnation is effected before 

 the insects quit their habitation ; because ocelli, being different 

 in their structure from the individual parts of the compound 

 eyes, are fitted only for near vision. The difference of structure 

 consists in this : The cornea, or external surface of each part 

 of the compound eye, which is individually as perfect, as an 

 organ of vision, as the ocellus, or single eye, is less convex than 

 the cornea of the latter ; while the chamber of the eye, or space 

 between the cornea and the termination of the nerve at the bot 

 tom of the structure, is of much greater length in the compound 

 eye than in the single. The result of these two conditions is, 

 that the compound eye is fitted for viewing objects at a consid 

 erable distance, but with little magnifying power ; while the 

 ocellus has great magnifying power, but is fitted only for view 

 ing near objects. The male with his single eyes may thus be 

 regarded as acute, but short-sighted, the opposite of his partner. 

 But this condition is essential to him, and fully sufficient, if, as 

 presumed, the greater portion of his existence is passed in a 

 closed cell, not half an inch in diameter, and from which, per 

 haps, he never wanders more than to the distance of a few 

 inches. But stemmata or ocelli only would be insufficient for 

 the other sex, who has not only to seek out the proper locality 

 for her eggs, but also to elude the vigilance of the bee in whose 

 nest she is seeking to introduce her own progeny. Instead, 

 therefore, of mere stemmata, the eyes of the female are multi 

 plied, and occupy, as in most other perfect insects, a large por 

 tion of the surface on each side of the head. ' ' 



