188 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



organisation and affinity. With respect to the further 

 advance from the ovipositor to the sting, tlie non-existence 

 of the first-mentioned instrument necessarily involves external 

 deposition of the egg, with all the concomitant requirements 

 of protection for the latter in a closed cell, and provision for 

 the future progeny; but Dr. Miiller would have us believe 

 that, contrary to all analogy, some of the aforesaid " insect- 

 piercing" races "carried off their victim to a place of 

 concealment," and were thus led to abandon the habit of 

 laying their ,eggs '^inside the victim," when (as it would 

 seem) still furnished with the terebra, whose presence or 

 absence must necessarily determine, ipso facto, the mode of 

 oviposition with its accessories; this organ, however (as we 

 are taught), becoming converted into a sling by '* slow and 

 gradual" degrees, while, of course, in the active and essential 

 exercise of its appropriate functions as an ovipositor, or 

 otherwise not a single generation of these reforming groups, 

 now become industrious constructors and purveyors, could 

 have survived such transitional period ! Moreover, it is not 

 to the sling alone, but to the whole structural development, 

 that such contrasts extend; comprising, ««^er «/z«, peculiar 

 differences in the venation of the wings, corresponding among 

 species allied iii other respects, but having no functional 

 advantage in the conservation of the race according to the 

 modification theory ; such characteristic exponents, in this 

 and other orders, symbolizing the members of each kindred 

 association with remarkable precision, and serving, coin- 

 cidently with other indications, to determine their otherwise 

 natural alliances. Nor can it be averred that the relative 

 expansion of wing or velocity of flight offer any solution 

 of these diversities in the alary system ; for the Tenthredinidas, 

 with their dilated wings and complex venation, are among 

 the most sluggish of these races; while the Oxyuri, the 

 Chrysidida), and some of the Fossores, less amply endowed 

 in these respects, are eminently prone to energy and vivacity. 

 Dr. Miiller, however, eventually demolishes his own su])er- 

 structure, of progressive acquirements as a reliable principle 

 of continuous advance to "more and more complex life- 

 relations, accompanied by a higher and higher mental 

 organization," by finally expressing his " opinion that the 

 various proceedings by which the solitary wasps thus protect 



