1891.] IQ 



ovipositing or sbowiug any desire to hibernate. I, however, came to, 

 or was confirmed in, the conclusion that the eggs were laid in autumn, 

 and that the beetles did not hibernate, partly from the death of the 

 beetles, partly from the females always being full of eggs fully 

 matured. I have never succeeded in finding a free larva in the wasp's 

 nest, whence I conclude that they are introduced one by one, and 

 very quickly bury themselves in a wasp grub ; whereas, did the beetle 

 hibernate, the female would lay many eggs in a nest, and the young 

 larvfe would certainly be often met with. The female contains so 

 many ova (though not so many as Meloe) that it is obvious that the 

 great mortality of the species occurs between oviposition and the safe 

 arrival of the larva into the interior of the wasp grub, especially as 

 after that date the mortality is nil. If the egg were laid in the nest 

 this would not be so. 



Thinking out these matters, I this year enclosed a number of 

 freshly disclosed beetles in a sunny place, with portions of dead and 

 rotten wood, as well as some flowers. I was lucky enough on two 

 occasions to see the beetles in cop., proving certainly that pairing 

 occurs in autumn, and afterwards I observed several females, fertile 

 or otherwise, searching the crevices of the wood with their extensive 

 ovipositors, and at times quietly resting with the ovipositor nearly out 

 of sight, buried in the cracks of the wood. This clearly proves that 

 the eggs are laid in autumn. 



That a cavity in dead or rotten wood is the natural place of ovi- 

 position is not proved, but is rendered in the highest degree probable, 

 when it is remembered that no other arrangement that I previously 

 tried had any success in inducing oviposition. It becomes further, 

 therefore, probable that the mite-like young larvae are met with by 

 the wasps in collecting the wood shavings for nest building, probably 

 usually one at a time, and a nest contains a succession of paradoxus, 

 because the same post or stick over which the beetle larvae are wan- 

 dering, is constantly frequented by the wasps of that nest, whilst those 

 of other nests, free from Rhipiphovux, do not happen to have visited 

 such a p'ist. Though my ob.^ervations will well bear refutation or 

 confirmation, there remains really only one matter still unknown, that 

 is, when do the eggs hatch ? From the delicate nature of the eggs I 

 incline to believe that the young larva is developed in the autumn, but 

 hibernates unhatched within the egg-shell. Those eggs that I found 

 laid in the wood cavities were either infertile or injured by my ex- 

 amination, as they went mouldy instead of developing. Whether any 

 I did not disturb may have been more lucky will not appear till next 

 spring, but 1 much doubt it. 



