THE EPHIALTM. I9I 



ing the ovipositor beneath, and plunges the point within a narrow 

 fissure, so that it reaches the larva, which is grubbing away, in 

 apparent safety, at the rotten wood. When the stroke is given, the 

 valves of the ovipositor separate, and curve, so that the thrust, 

 when it overcomes the resistance of the wood, penetrates far inside. 

 In the engraving, which is, of course, a diagram, this operation is 

 shown, the wood being removed over the larva. The curve of 

 the ovipositor beneath the abdomen .is apparent. All this is very 

 surprising, for the active insect manages to discover the deeply 

 secreted larva, which it cannot see, and to find out a convenient 

 fissure in the wood down which to thurst its ovipositor with 

 certain effect. 



The Rhys.m persiiasoria has the same habits as the Ephialtes, 

 and is a much prettier insect, being marked with little spots, or 

 lines of a yellow colour. 



The OpJdonidcB are IcJineiunons, which can be distinguished at 

 once by the peculiar shape of the abdomen, for it is bent, and 

 compressed, literally like a sickle. They have a small ovipositor, 

 and deposit their eggs either within caterpillars that feed on 

 leaves in broad daylight and are unsheltered, or upon their skins. 

 The eggs are somewhat remarkable, and have been carefully 

 examined. They are oblong, and have a long and twisted 

 peduncle, and this is fixed on to the skin of the victim. The 

 young larva, on being hatched, breaks its Q.gg shell on the side 

 remote from the peduncle, allows its body still to remain within 

 the pedunculated shell, and thus attacks the caterpillar in safety. 

 Sometimes the female misses the caterpillar, and the ^gg sticks 

 on her own body, so that when the larva is born it at once attacks 

 its own parent. Most of these kinds are large insects, and Ophion 

 litteiis is very common in Europe. 



The BraconidcB are a very large tribe, and are the commonest 

 of the parasitic IcJinejimonidcB. They multiply at a great rate, and 

 most of them are very small indeed. Many of them frequent 

 flowers during fine weather, and are enemies of the beetles, and 

 the species of the genus Alysia are parasitic upon the great family 

 of the flies MuscidcB. 



The Microgasiers belong to a group which differs from that 

 of the BraconitcSy and are very small insects, being about the 



