194 TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 



HYMENOPTERA WITH DENSE INTEGUMENTS. 



(C/trysididcC.) 



This family of Hynncnoptcra cannot be very readily associated 

 with the others. The CJirysididcs are commonly called ruby-tail 

 flies or gilded wasps, and they have a close resemblance on 

 account of their peculiar shape to tiny wasp-like flies, but they 

 never attain a third of the size of the common Vespa. The bril- 

 liant colours of the Cluysididcs strike the observer at once, and 

 their fiery tints look like a blaze of jewels. Some species have 

 the body tinted with a beautiful golden green, others shine in 

 ultramarine, and many have this splendid blue relieved by a 

 scintillating ruby red colour on the abdomen. There are some 

 large spots and chasings upon the thorax, which produce beautiful 

 effects in the light, and thus the CJirysididcB are splendid when 

 moving restlessly here and there in the bright sunshine. Had 

 they large bodies they would be prized for their beauty as the 

 humming birds of the insect world, but as they are small crea- 

 tures, their decorations are therefore less striking. 



The integuments of the CJirysididcs are very thick and hard ; 

 and the insects have the power of rolling themselves up like a 

 ball, by bringing the abdomen against the underneath part of the 

 thorax. This is quite a peculiarity amongst these Hyjucnoptcra; 

 moreover, they differ from others by having a cylindrical body, 

 the abdomen being concave below, and very convex above, and 

 attached to the thorax by a very short waist. The rings of the 

 abdomen appear to shut up more or less within each other, like 

 a telescope slide. The females carry a very sharp sting, which 

 gives great pain. These insects have filiform antennae, long man- 

 dibles ; the jaws have palpi, formed of five joints ; and the lower 

 lip projects, and is membranous, so that they can suck. The 

 wings are moderately veined, and the legs are slender. These 

 insects exhibit a wonderful amount of activity under a broiling 

 sun, and then they are never still, but are constantly flying here 

 and there, and resting a while upon the flowers. In some spots 

 of central Europe — where these insects are much more common 

 than in the north — they collect in numbers, and aftbrd a mag- 



