1874. 



197 



Jlcj.I 



On May 9tli, for the first time, I observed one of tliese larva? 

 changing to a more globular form ; this change showing still more 

 plainly, accompanied by the appearance of a darker colour, on May 13th. 



On May 19th, I found the Volucella grubs decidedly altered in 



shape to a more contracted and globose form, and, on opening vv^hat 



now might be called the puparium, I found the contained pupa so far 



developed as to be perfectly free of its case, 



save a slight attachment at the tail. The 



creature (Fig. 1), taken from its case, showed 



the head, thorax, and abdomen, the head having 



two blunt processes tipped with brown on the 



upper part, but the rest of the pupa was still 



soft and moist, the future limbs not showing 



till after being contracted in spirit ; the wings 



showed themselves clearly, with some degree of appearance of the 



future legs. 



On June 2nd, the development had much 



advanced, the pupa now showing wings, legs 

 with their tarsi, and also many portions of the 

 structure of the mouth : the external appear- 

 ance of the puparium (Fig. 2, magnified) was 

 pyriform, truncate at the caudal extremity, 

 with the larval segments drawn up into trans- 

 verse wrinkles, the radiating points at the 



tail much dried, and the portion (Fig. 3) 



which, in the larval stage, served as a caudal 



foot, and which then was very remarkable for 



its power of protrusion and retraction, now 



dried and permanently exserted, and of a 



deep red colour. The head appendages were 



now very conspicuous (Fig. 4), clavate in 

 shape, shiny, black, and covered with tubercles, 

 both tubercles and depressions being punctate. 

 On June 8th, for the first time, I found a 

 developed Volucella under the guarding cover, 

 recently hatched, and not yet sufliciently har- 

 dened to enable it to fly ; this, on examination, 



was found to be a specimen of the V. lomlylans, and on June 17th 



another of the same species, of the black variety, was hatched from 



the same collection. 



Besides the Volucellcd which developed into active existence, there 



