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FAMILY CHRYSIDIDAE. 



Ruby Wasps. (Plate i6, Fig. lo.) 



They are beautiful greenish metallic wasps whose 

 integument is so hard as to be called the "armour- 

 plate" of the insect world. 



Eggs are laid in the nests of bees and other 

 wasps and should this enemy be attacked by them, 

 she curls her body round presenting the armour- 

 plate of her back and sides to the pursuer. Ruby 

 wasps have a sucking mouth. (Plate i6, Fig. 9.) 

 In America these ruby wasps are called ''cuckoo 

 flies," and J. H. and A. B. Comstock, in the work, 

 "A Manual of the Study of Insects," write in de- 

 scribing these insects : "The abdomen is convex 

 above and flat below so that it can be readily turned 

 under the thorax and closely applied to it. In this 

 way the "cuckoo-fly" rolls itself into a ball when 

 attacked, leaving only its wings exposed. 



Although these insects are handsome they have 

 very ugly morals, resembling those of the bird 

 whose name has been applied to them. A cuckoo- 

 fly seeks until it finds one of the digger wasps or 

 a solitary true wasp, or a solitary bee, building a 

 nest, and when the owner of the nest is off collect- 

 ing provisions, steals in and lays its egg, which 

 the unconscious builder walls in with her own egg. 

 Sometimes the cuckoo-larva eats the rightful occu- 



