60 iAii(f\ii(t. 



development o£ the contained embryo ; but in both cases I found 



eggs of the shape sketched A and B, that is, narrowly ovate, about 

 twice as long as their own width throughout, and with the two ex- 

 tremities obtuse. 



The ovipositor of the female Meligeihes is so enormously distended 

 by the egg, that till seeing its exit, it is almost impossible to believe 

 it could find a passage : the proportion might in diagram-form be con- 

 veyed as in the cut — C, channel of exit ; D, distended mass above. 



On the 21st of June, the day after the deposit of the Meligetlies 

 eggs, the commencement of the development of the contained larvae 

 was perceptible as a misty substance nearly filling the egg (see E 

 in cut). 



On the 23rd, the larval shape was more defined, the egg showing 

 as clear at each end, and on one side, and the contained embryo as an 

 obtuse oval form occupying about two-thirds of the length and breadth, 

 and lying against one side of the containing pellicle. 



On June 2-ith, that is, four or five days after the laying of the 

 eggs, several of them hatched, and I could see no difference between 

 the specimens of the larvse hatched from these eggs procured imme- 

 diately from the imprisoned beetles and those previously examined on 

 the infested rape plants, and in their habits also the resemblance was 

 to be found. The caudal foot was used for assistance in progression, 

 and the newly-hatched grub fed greedily on the anther of the rape. 



In another series of observations, the parents were imprisoned on 

 June 26th, and on July 2nd, as the eggs were beginning to hatch, I 

 placed one on a microscope slide for continuous observation under an 

 object glass of one inch focus. 



The first observation taken at 8.22 a.m. on the 2nd of Julv, 



