HYMENOPTERA. 79 
ance of an obtected (Lepidopterous) chrysalis. Dr. F. T. C. Ratze- 
burg has published a memoir in the Nova Acta Natur, Curios. (tom. 
xvi. 1832), entitled Uber Entwichelung der Fusslosen Hymenopteren 
larven mit besonderer rucksicht auf die gattung Formica, the chief 
object of which is to prove that the first segment of the body, as well 
as the head of the apodal larva, corresponds with the head of the 
pupa; that the fourth segment of the body (exclusive of the head) 
corresponds with the metathorax, and the fifth segment with the abdo- 
minal peduncle. Ratzeburg appears to have arrived at this conclusion 
from having noticed that, in the larva immediately preceding the 
change to the pupa state, the eyes of the pupa appear visible through 
the slender skin of the second segment (inclusive of the head), and 
that the fifth and sixth segments are contracted. This view of the 
subject is so completely at variance with what is observed in other, 
pedate larvee, in which it is certain that the head of the larva corre- 
sponds with the head of the pupa and imago, and the circumstances 
noticed by Ratzeburg are so easily accounted for upon considering 
the necessary increased size of the head of the enclosed pupa over 
that of the larva, that I do not hesitate to consider these views as un- 
tenable, as I have more fully endeavoured to prove in a memoir upon 
this subject, published in the Zransactions of the Entomological Society 
(vol. ii. p. 121.). 
On arriving at the perfect state, these insects, for the most part, 
take but little nourishment, and this almost exclusively consists of 
the nectar of flowers. Many species, indeed, especially belonging to 
the family of the bees, may be observed, from morning till night, busy 
in the flowers; they are, however, occupied in collecting pollen and 
honey for the stores of their future progeny, rather than providing 
food for themselves ; and the same remark may be made respecting 
the ferocious Fossores, which may be observed dragging along the 
dead bodies of other insects, which they themselves do not devour. 
The wasps and ants are certainly more or less carnivorous ; but the 
havoc which these insects make in our wall-fruit prove that they are 
equally partial to vegetable matter ; and cells filled with honey have 
been observed in the nests of some Polistides, having even been found 
by M. Aug. Saint Hilaire in the nests of the Brazilian P. licheguana, 
a very venomous species. The affection which the ants bear to the 
Aphides having for its object the obtaining a supply of the saccharine 
fluid emitted by the latter, called honey dew, is also a proof of the 
