58 



INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



cadoed nest of the mason-wasp. But although the 

 insect appeared not to he disturbed by my obser- 

 vations, yet I was unable to perceive whether the 

 toothed portion of the borer was pushed beyond the 

 sides of the sheath. What I did see, however, con- 

 vinced me that the instrument was worked in a 

 manner well adapted to make its way through the 

 mortar ; for she turned it half round alternately from 

 right to left and from left to right, as a carpenter 

 would his brad-awl, and employed altogether more 

 than a quarter of an hour before she succeeded in 

 penetrating to a sufficient depth*." 



Ichneumon-flies ovipositing, a a, an ichneumon fly. h h, its 

 ovipositor, c, an ichneumon, which has just bored through the 

 closed substance of a sand-wasp's nest at e, into which her ovi- 

 positor, d, descends to the coil of caterpillars at /, where the 

 egg is laid. 



* Reaumur, Mem. vi, p. 3l)4. 



