64 MR. NEWPORT ON THE ANATOMY AND DEVELOPMENT 



When the nymph (fig. 6) state was attained, at the end of August, the change to the imago 

 occurred in about ten or twelve days afterwards, and the perfect insect hybernated during 

 the following seven or eight months. In most instances, however, no change took place 

 until the spring, the period of hybernation being passed in the state of larva. The fact of 

 the larvae being full-grown at the end of August, and the cell otherwise entirely empty, 

 seems to indicate that the species is carnivorous and feeds on the young of the Bee. 



The imago. — The two sexes of this insect differ much in their anatomy and general 

 appearance, and the dissimilarity is so great, that if they were found in separate cells, in- 

 stead of being constantly together, they might readily be taken for distinct species. The 

 males are heavy and creeping in their movements, scarcely ever making use of their wings, 

 or attempting to escape, but the females are lively and very active. 



Description of the species. — The male (fig.l) is of a deep yellow colour, very different from 

 the female, which is of a shining bronze-green. }t has a large rounded head, somewhat 

 wider than the thorax, with a single ocellus on each side, instead of the usual large com- 

 pound eyes of the tribe, and it has also a transverse row of three ocelli on the vertex. 

 The antennae (fig. 1 a & b), as I have shown, differ so much from these organs in the other 

 sex, that they might easily be mistaken for those even of an entirely different genus. The 

 prothorax is conical, and the head is supported on it as on a pivot. The mesothorax is 

 somewhat quadrangular, and the scutellum very large. The abdomen in both sexes has 

 seven distinct segments : it is sessile and of a suboval form. The legs are more robust 

 in the male than in the other sex, the tibia and femur being well developed, and the tarsi 

 are five-jointed. The wings are small, narrow, and extend backwards, when folded, as 

 they usually are, to about one half the length of the abdomen. I never have seen the 

 male unfold, or attempt to use them. 



The female (fig. 2) is of a shining bronze-green colour, with a large head, and large com- 

 pound eyes at the sides. The antennae (fig. 2 a), as in most of the tribe, are each formed of 

 a long basilar joint, about one half the length of the entire organ, the remaining portion 

 composed of five joints being somewhat clavate. The prothorax and mesothorax resemble 

 those of the male, as also does the abdomen, excepting that it is highly polished. The 

 ovipositor is concealed. The wings are large, rounded, and iridescent, and the insect is 

 exceedingly active on them. The legs (fig. 5 d) in this sex are yellow, and less developed 

 than in the male. The number of females in each nest was as six or eight to one of the 

 other sex, the number of the whole in each nest being from thirty to fifty. 



I have been unable to find any description in the works of entomologists of this curious 

 genus of parasites. Mr. Walker, our most assiduous monographer of the Chalcidida, is 

 unacquainted with it ; and the only naturalist, so far as I can ascertain, who has made 

 reference to an insect which possibly may have some affinity with this, is Mr. Westwood, 

 who, in his work * published in 1839, mentions a species found by M. Audouin in Prance, 

 in the nests of " Odynerus, Anthophora and Osmia," but he adds that " the species has 

 not yet been described." Since then he has again alluded to M. Audouin's insect f, as 



* Introduction to Modern Classification of Insects, vol. ii. part xi. p. 160. (March 1839.) 

 f Proc. Entom. Soc. Lond., July 5, 1847, p. xviii, in the Transactions, vol. v. part 3. 1848. 



