March. '03] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 75 



accompaniment of the enlarged palpi may be noticed the 

 reduction of the orbital cilia. Of the other genera, the males 

 of Diostracits alone have the palpi longer than those of the 

 females. Should philtrum conform Avith the rule in this 

 family what a remarkable animal the female must be ! But it 

 is far more likely that this secondary sexual character is not 

 repeated in the other sex, and that when the female is dis- 

 covered she will present no characters at variance with typical 

 Chrysotns. It is greatly to be desired that the courtship- 

 habits of these species with enlarged mouth-parts be made 

 known, and especially of this form which has the accompany- 

 ing allurement of tarsal ornamentation. 



A Glimpse of the Life History of Mutilla vesta 



Cresson. 



[Contributions from the Zoological Laboratory of the University of Texas, No. 44.] 



BY AUGUSTA RUCKER. 



So little has been made known, at least in America, con- 

 cerning the habits of the Mutillidse, that it seems worth while 

 to record the following fragmentary observations made in 

 Austin during the latter part of July on one of the commoner 

 Texan species. Miss Margaret Holliday and myself had been 

 experimenting with some Agricultural ants {Pogonomyrmc.\ 

 barbatus Smith, var. molefadens Buckley), and we were en- 

 deavoring to obtain a suitable animal food for a queenless 

 colony, which invariably after depositing their unfertilized 

 eggs, resorted to the cannibalistic practice of devouring their 

 larvae after they had hatched and had been cared for till they 

 were nearly ready to pupate. In our efforts to repress this 

 destructive practice, I placed in a large control nest which 

 had previously been stored with various seeds and freshly 

 killed flies, a larva and pupa of the blue mud-dauber (Pe/o- 

 paeiis caerntcus). The ants immediately deserted all other 

 food, showing a decided preference for the newly introduced 

 masses of proteid and fat. This preference did not come 

 merely with a change of diet as often happens with these 

 insects, but continued as long as the young of I\U>pat:us were 



