442 



Marvels of Insect Life, 



Pkolo by] 



Ichneumons. 



[H. Bastin. 



A cocoon of the leaf-cuttc-r bee ou being cut open is 

 in this instance found to contain a number of chry- 

 salids of an ichneumon-wasp. The female ichneumon 

 had contrived to deposit her eggs in the cell, and the 

 grubs have lived at the expense of the bee larva, which 

 has been consumed ultimate!v. 



the receptacle, and arrived at the mouth of the 

 aperture within which she has to convey it, she 

 rolls it to its requisite tubular form and thrusts 

 it forward to the bottom of the cavity. The first 

 piece for the lining of the cell is always oval and 

 larger in proportion to the succeeding ones, 

 which, to the number of three or four, are semi- 

 circular, the first piece having an extra use to 

 serve in forming a concave bottom to the cavity. 

 Having completed the requisite manipulation 

 for adjusting" to shape the external lining of the 

 bottom and sides of the first cell, she withdraws 

 backwards, again flies off, and, as if she had 

 traced a trail in the air, . . . back she wends to the same plant, and proxi- 

 mately to the spot of her recent triumphant exploit, renews the operation, 

 but the result of which, this time, is to be semicircular. Home she 

 flies again, and the arrangement within of this piece is different . . . 

 for this is simpl}^ tubular, and so placed that it imbricates with its cut margin 

 within the serrated edge of the first and the third, and in case of a fourth the fourth 

 also is similarly placed, so that one laps within the other, the edges of two of these 

 cuttings never being conterminous. The number of the cuttings is apparently 

 regulated by the drier or moister condition of the substance in which the tunnel 

 is drilled. Another duty has now to be performed, indeed that for which all the 

 preceding labours were undertaken — the provision for its young, wherein it 

 perpetuates its kind. . . . Having completed the requisite store of honey mixed 

 with pollen, this is carried to the brush with which the under side of the abdomen 

 is furnished, by means of the posterior legs. The honey and pollen are gathered 

 from different kinds of thistles, whence it acquires a reddish hue and looks almost 

 like conserve of roses, and the nest is filled with it within a line of its top ; the 

 egg is then deposited. . . . The cell has 

 now to be closed, and the artificer, knowing 

 that the transverse section of the cell is 

 circular, again flies forth, and without 

 compass, but with all the accuracy with 

 which Leonardo da Vinci struck a circle 

 with his pencil, to testify his mastery, cuts 

 the leaf again in that form, and as surely : 

 and three or four, or five or six times 

 repeats the operation, returning each time 

 with each piece, so many having been 

 variously observed." 



In the same manner other cells to the 

 number of four or five are formed above 

 the first, and any space remaining in the 

 tube is filled ui^ with earth. The bee 



Photu by\ 



A Bee Parasite. 



Ichnennions are not the only enemies from which tlu- Uaf- 

 c\ittcrs suffer. Another bee — coelioxys — to save the labour 

 of nest making and provisioning, lays her eggs in tlie leaf- 

 cntter'scells, and the young consume the egg and stores of their 

 hosts. This is the bee that does the mischief. 



