EFFECTS OF TEMPERATURE ON INSECT DEVELOPMENT. 141 
at Sedbury, Gloucestershire, without any overshadowing from 
trees or bushes; the special locality was partly in the stones of 
a rough dry drain, partly in hard las clay at about a_ foot 
beneath the surface, and three feet from the opening of its gallery- 
thoroughfare. It contained six or more combs of more than a 
foot in diameter, the later ones being irregularly made as if under 
some disturbing influence (as I have found them in a deserted 
nest of the tree-wasp); and in these, with the exception of one 
or two developed beetles, I did not find any specimens of 
Rhipiphori. In the other combs—those composed of workers’ 
cells—I found great numbers of Rhipiphori in various stages of 
pupal condition, from the earhest state, still white and soft, 
to the appearance of colour, and onwards to full development. 
Their number was beyond what I could calculate. The wasp- 
comb being required cleared of living contents, I went over each 
comb with a pair of pointed forceps, tearing the caps off 
each of the cells and removing the contents, and had thus a 
complete opportunity of inspection; and the Rhipiphori, being 
plentifully scattered in all parts of all the small-celled combs, 
must have been exceedingly numerous. 
In the few cells which I left unopened in all the combs (for 
purposes of further confirmation of my own observations), and 
forwarded to Mr. A. Murray, he informed me that he found from 
sixty to seventy specimens of Rhipiphori developed or still as 
pup. ‘These combs and illustrative specimens are (unless 
recently removed) still to be seen in Case LVIII. of the Collection 
of Economic Entomology at Bethnal Green. 
As with the Clythra, the appearance of the Rhipiphorus may 
have been dependent on many unknown circumstances, still it is 
in striking coincidence with apparent fostering protection afforded 
by the abnormal state of the containing nests. 
The extraordinary ignorance and perversion, or absolute 
inversion of correctness, in the views prevalent with many on 
insect development, make the popular ideas on these subjects 
unfortunately of little value ; still there is sometimes a foundation 
(though not necessarily the supposed one) for a widespread 
belief; and it would be a most useful and acceptable addition 
to our information, if (after the recent severe winter and spring, 
still, at the beginning of May accompanied by temperatures 
reaching little above twenty degrees at the ground level) we 
