268 [November, 



ordinary care is taken with the finishing touches designed to render 

 the hole indistinguishable from the surrounding ground, this being 

 effected so well that even after watching the whole process, it is 

 impossible after once taking one's eyes off the spot, to indicate 

 exactly the original centre of the hole. In one case 17 dead Calluna 

 corollas, 39 Calluna twigs, one broken-off Erica flower, and 180 odd 

 pieces of dirt, sand, &c, varying in size from four to six times her own, 

 to minute grains, were used for the purpose, apart from the sand 

 kicked down deliberately some 20 times, only larger material being 

 handled at first, then the small sand grains, &c, and finally twenty 

 minutes were occupied in rendering the site invisible. 



Even where Cicindela larvae are abundant, it must be tedious 

 work finding the burrows, but once found, no time is wasted, and in 

 captivity one Meihoca will dispose of as many as three in one day. 

 It will be seen from the experimental data that the parasite usually 

 remains about half-an-hour down the burrow after tackling its occu- 

 pant, perhaps resting, and then spends thirty minutes to an hour filling 

 up the hole. This done, she at once starts off on the quest of a 

 further victim, and so long as the weather is bright and warm, is un- 

 ceasingly active. The night and dull weather is usually spent in an 

 empty hole or any dark hollow ; we were unable to observe that any 

 food was taken, our specimens remaining alive up to eight days in cap- 

 tivity without eating. 



The observations made on the behaviour of 6 $ ? will now be 

 summarised : — 



1. $ of medium size, found on August 19th, and imprisoned over a large 

 Cicindela (probably C. sylvatica) burrow on the open heath-land, under a glass 

 bottomed pill-box ; she went down at once, re-appearing after half-an-hour 

 (the pill-box having been removed), and spent two hours and a half filling 

 iu the hole. She then ran off to look for a fresh hole, but was caught and 

 brought home and put in a glass jar half filled with sand. She spent the night 

 in an empty burrow in the sand, and the next morning proceeded to fill up the 

 hole ! In the afternoon, a larva was put in a prepared hole in the same jar, 

 and the Methoca at once went in after it, a struggle ensuing near the top, 

 during which the victim ejected a good deal of fluid from the mouth. During 

 the fight, the burrow had become blocked up, and this seems to have disgusted 

 her, for she deserted it without finishing the work. 



On the 21st, on being brought near an occupied burrow, she soon went 

 down, and a few seconds after the larva rushed right out of it, followed by the 

 Methoca ; it soon went back but was seen no more, as its enemy followed it, 

 evidently disposed of it in the usual way and then filled up the hole, spending 

 half-an-hour at the work. The next day we confined her over a burrow in a 



