INVESTIGATIONS ON THE MUTILLID WASPS 6 



EARLY SUPPOSITIONS REGARDING THE HABITS OF MDTILLIDS 



The first account of the habits of the Mutillids is that of Barbiit 

 (1781), who wrote regarding Mutilla europaea Linnaeus as follows: 



These beautiful insects are inhabitants of the ground, and to be met with 

 under the moss, more especially when there is a hollow space between the 

 moss and the earth. Walking in Hyde Park the latter end of the summer in 

 pursuit of insects, upon turning up the moss, I had the pleasure of seeing a 

 most beautiful company of these animals. Their wings, which shone like 

 pearl, were laid horizontally on their back, and but few of them being alatae, 

 gave the group a splendid appearance. They were so swift in motion that I 

 could not catch any more than one. I believe there might be 20 together, which 

 convinces me they live in society similar to that of ants. 



Thus the idea that the Mutillids were social insects gained credence 

 very early. 



The earliest important observations on the Mutillids are those of 

 J. L. Christ (1791), Christ regarded these wasps as wild bees and 

 discovered that a relationship existed between M. europaea and bum- 

 blebees, but interpreted it as being commensal. A translation of the 

 account of his observations is as follows : 



First I must mention that all the Mutillid nests I have been able to find 

 have contained bumblebees. I have, in part, found Mutillid families in which 

 bumblebees lived, in part, bumblebee families in which the Mutillids lived. 

 In the first, the Mutillids formed approximately five parts and the bumblebees 

 one part ; but in the latter the bumblebees amounted to approximately six 

 parts and the Mutillids one part. In each of these combined dissimilar societies 

 there were males, females, and young of each species in the nest. The young 

 of both the bumblebee and the Mutillid were found together in the cells, like 

 children of one family, so that I was much pleased with this brotherly harmony 

 in two so different appearing species of insects, and I would have liked to have 

 given them the name of Damon and Pythias, if they had not already been 

 named by Linn6. 



The idea that the Mutillids were social insects was rather firmly 

 established by those observations and it was not until many yfeails 

 later that the true relationship between bumblebees and M. europaea 

 was discovered. It is remarkable that, with the observations of 

 Christ to be used as a foundation, the true relationship existing 

 between the bumblebee and M. europaea was not learned very soon 

 afterwards. However, it was more than 50 years before any addi- 

 tional facts were discovered. 



Latreille (1792«) wrote that he did not believe the Mutillids to 

 be social insects, but his later writings do not indicate that he was 

 ever able to show that they were not. E. Sibly (1802?) in a popular 

 work on natural history restates the observation made by Barbut. 

 Fabricius (1804) quotes Christ in regard to the habits of the Mutil- 

 lidae. Jurine (1807) apparently did not know of Christ's work and 

 in his account of the Mutillids says practically nothing regarding 

 their habits. He was uncertain as to whether the individuals con- 



