THE RHIPIPHOEUS. i51 



is dislributed throughout the whole of England. It is to be 

 found in flowers. 



We now come to a very extraordinary Beetle, named Rhipi- 

 phorus paradoxus. A figure of the insect is given on Wood- 

 cnt XV*. Fig. 5. In this genus, of which there is only one 

 British species, the head is not visible when the insect is viewed 

 from above, and the antennae are doubly pectinated in the male 

 and singly in the female. The antennas of the two sexes are 

 shown on the same woodcut — that of the male at Fig. b and of 

 the female at Fig. c. The generic name Rhipiphorus is formed 

 of two Greek words, signifying ' fan-bearing,' and is given to 

 the Beetle in consequence of the fan-like antennae of the male. 

 The thorax is much arched, and lengthened behind into a point 

 that takes the place of the scutellum. The elytra are not 

 closed throughout their length, but separate at the apex, where 

 they are narrowed into points, the wings extending beyond their 

 tips. The colour of the head is black, and so is the middle of 

 the thorax, the lobe on either side being brick-coloured. There 

 is a bold channel along the middle of the thorax. In the 

 male insect the elytra are yellowish, changing to black at the 

 apex, while in the female they are almost entirely black, with 

 a slight yellow tinge. The abdomen is orange. The female 

 Beetle is rather larger than the male. 



So much for the form and colour of this Beetle, and we will 

 now go into its singular history. 



Until comparatively late days, this insect was one of our very 

 rarest Beetles, only one or two specimens having been captured, 

 and nothing known of their food or mode of life, this ignorance 

 of their transformations being the reason for the specific name 

 paradoxus, or ' puzzling.' Accidentally, however, its true 

 habitation was discovered, and since that time it cannot be rec- 

 koned among our rarest insects, though the Beetle-hunter is 

 always glad to come on specimens either of the larva, the pupa, 

 or the perfect insect. It is, in fact, one of the parasitic 

 Beetles, taking up its abode in wasps' nests — a very strange 

 locality, considering its object there, and the terrible weapons 

 with which its involuntary hosts are armed. 



Even after it was known that the Ehipiphorus was parasitic 

 on the wasp, the insect had still a right to the name paradoxus. 



