130 HYMEXOPTERA. 



evidence of its having cast its skin three times whilst 

 under observation, and from the analogy of C. bldentata, 

 I believe it had done so four times altogether. The 

 stored larvse had all been devoured, their heads alone 

 remaining, just as when eaten by the Wasp grub. The 

 larva then spun a cocoon, which I knew to be typical of 

 G. ignita. The rapidity with which it had fed up was 

 extraordinary. None of my neglecta or bidentata fed 

 up so rapidly ; but the warm sunny wall on which 

 parietum had built her nest may partly account for 

 this, my larvae of the other two species having been 

 kept comparatively cool." 



The deposition of the eggs by these insect Cuckoos 

 is not always allowed to take place by the rightful 

 occupants of the cells without a contest. Westwood 

 tells us, on the authority of a French Naturalist, an 

 instance in which a Mason Bee, returning to its nearly 

 finished cell, laden with pollen paste, found a Hedy- 

 chruni (one of the Chrysididse) in its nest, and attacked 

 it with its jaws : the parasite immediately rolled itself 

 into a ball, so that the Bee could not hurt it ; however, 

 it bit off its four wings which were exposed, rolled it to 

 the ground, and then deposited its load in the cell and 

 flew away, whereupon the Hedychrum, now wingless, 

 had the persevering instinct to crawl up the wall to the 

 nest, and there quietly deposit its egg, which it placed 

 between the pollen paste and the wall of the cell, which 

 prevented the Mason Bee from seeing it. 



The Aculeate Hymen optera are those insects which 

 are furnished with a sting, which is connected with a 

 poison gland ; Ants, Wasps, and Bees are well-known 

 representatives of tliis section. This section is divided 



