400 



AN ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY. 



Fig. 453. 



A velvet ant, Sphcer 

 ophthalma occiden 

 talis. 



Occasionally we find, running on sandy spots, an insect that 

 looks like a large ant, very prettily colored and banded with 

 bright scarlet and black, rusty red or mottled yellow. If one of 

 these apparent ants be picked up, the result 

 is usually a surprise in the form of an enor- 

 mously long sting, for we really have a wing- 

 less "digger-wasp," which from its appear- 

 ance and habits has been called a "velvet 

 ant." Just what the breeding habits of these 

 Mutillidcz are is not known, but they are sup- 

 posed to be parasites, or at least to lay their 

 eggs in the nests of other species of Hymen- 

 optera. There is considerable difference be- 

 tween the sexes, and the males are winged 

 even when the females are wingless, the wings 

 being usually blackish in color. 



Another series of "diggers" belongs to the 

 family Sco/ildtr, and these may often be seen 

 quite early in the spring, flying close to the 

 surface of the ground, with a buzzing noise. Often they are 

 found visiting flowers, particularly the males, which are some- 

 times quite abundant when raspberries are in bloom. These in- 

 sects, so far as we know 

 Fig. 454. their habits, lay their eggs 



in underground larvae, 

 which are then devoured 

 by the voung of the wasp. 

 The common "white 

 grub," the larva of Lack 

 ?wstcrna, is subject to the 

 attacks of one of these 

 species, Tiphia moruaia, 

 a black wasp, rather sparingly clothed with fine white hair, and 

 sometimes attaining the length of three-fourths of an inch ; and 

 there are others that attack our injurious underground species of 

 all orders. 



In the family PoDipilidcc we have a series of rather stout, 

 black forms, quite frequently banded with red on the abdomen, 

 while sometimes the entire insects are more or less red. They 



White-grub parasite, Tiphia inutnata. — a, inia 

 go; b, head of larva; c, larva; d, cocoon. 



