294.' MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 



house reared a species from some rotten wood placed in his breeding 

 cages, without, however, having noticed its larva. 



M. Vallot (Acad. Scienc, Arts et Belles Lett., Dijon, 1829, p. 30.) 

 has also published a notice of the larva of Mordella pusilla Dej. 

 found in the stems of Marrubium vulgare (common horehound). He 

 describes it as footless, yellowish, covered with short, black hairs ; the 

 segments, 12 in number, very distinct, the terminal one furnished 

 with a short, double, black spine. The head is of the colour of the 

 rest of the body, and the mandibles brown. It is found in the winter 

 feeding upon the medullary substance of the stems. It is transformed 

 into a pupa in June, and the imago appears in July. 



The Persian genus Ctenopus Fischer; which Latreille regards as 

 connecting Mordella and Pelecotoma, appears to me much nearer 

 allied to Sitaris, to which Ripiphorus also nearly approaches. 



The species of the genus Ripiphorus, on the contrary, are parasitic 

 upon other insects. The typical species R. paradoxus (Jig' 33. 12. (J ) 

 was first recorded by Germar (Mag. dcr Ent. v. i.), as inhabiting in 

 the perfect state the nests of the common wasp (where it has been 

 taken abundantly by the Rev. F. W. Hope, to whom I am indebted 

 for specimens in different stages of maturity); whence Latreille 

 observes, that it has been inferred that it subsists in that situation in 

 the larva state, and is probably nourished by the wasps as their own 

 offspring. On arriving at the perfect state, it emerges from the nest, 

 and seeks the flowers ; and it is probable that the female deposits her 

 eggs in the already formed cells of the wasps, her abdomen being 

 well adapted for such purposes, being long and acuminated. 



J. W. Bond has also published a notice of the parasitic habits of 

 this insect in the Entomological Magazine, No. 1 8. p. 225. ; and the 

 Rev. F. W. Hope (Zool. Journ. v, iii. p. 606.) has mentioned that 

 " the larger specimens of the Ripiphorus paradoxus, which are much 

 more rare than the smaller ones, are uniformly found only in the 

 cells of the female wasps." The latter author has also communicated 

 some further observations upon the same insects and its parasites to 

 the Rev. W. Kirby, by whom they have been introduced into his 

 Bridgetvater Treatise. Mr. Howitt in his Book of the Seasons, and 

 Ramdohr (Germar, Magaz. der Entomol. i. 137.), have given some 

 original observations on the habits of the same insect. Wy Jig. 33. 13. 

 represents the head of the male ; 14. one of the mandibles, and 15. 

 the bifid tarsal ungues. 



M. Farines (Annul. Sc. Nat. June 1826, p. 244.) has published a 



