170 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



through so hard a wall. To resolve this question, it is 

 asserted bj recent naturalists (see Kirby and Spence, vol. 

 iii. p. 15), that the moth is furnished with a peculiar acid 

 for dissolving itself a passage. We have a specimen of the 

 case of a puss-moth, in which, notwithstanding its strength, 

 one of the ichneumons had contrived to deposit its eggs. 

 In the beginning of summer, when we expected the moth 

 to appear, and felt anxious to observe the recorded eifects 

 of the acid, we were astonished to find a large orange 

 cuckoo -fly make its escape ; while another, which attempted 

 to follow, stuck by the way and died. On detaching the 

 cell from the' box, we found several others, which had not 

 been able to get out, and had died in their cocoons. (J. R.) 



Ichneumon {Ophion luteum), figured from the one mentioned. 



Among the carpenter-grubs may be mentioned that of 

 the purple capricom-beetle {CalUdiiwi violacewii), of which 

 the Rev. Mr. Kirby has given an interesting account in the 

 fifth volume of the ' Linnsean Transactions.' This insect 

 feeds principally on fir timber which has been felled some 

 time without having had the bark stiipped off ; but it is 

 often found on other wood. Though occasionally taken in 

 this kingdom, it is supposed not to have been originally a 

 native. The circumstance of this destructive little animal 

 attacking only such timber as had not been stripped of its 

 bark ought to be attended to by all persons who have any 

 concern in this article ; for the bark is a temptation not 

 only to this, but to various other insects ; and much of the 

 injury done in timber might be prevented, it' the trees were 

 all barked as soon as they were felled. The female is 

 furnished, at the posterior extremity of her body, with a 

 flat retractile tube, which she inserts between the bark 

 and the wood, to the depth of about a quarter of an inch, 

 and there deposits a single egg. By stripping off" the bark, 



