Mr. G. R. Waterhouse on Raphidia. 25 



" torsion and leaping, wliich the larva practises in so great a degree. 

 " Linnaeus had said that this pupa was active, but this is a mistake; 

 " but it is more astonishing that Latreille, who says he has reared 

 " it, has not mentioned this larva, and has continued, in his suhse- 

 " quent works, to refer this matter to the observation of Linnaeus, 

 " which has been followed by all the other entomologists. The larva 

 " changes to its perfect state at about the end of fifteen days." 



Tlie description M. Percheron gives of the movements of the larva 

 which he observed very well, agrees with what I have observed in 

 mine ; but, although I have found about a dozen specimens, I never 

 detected one under, but always in, the bark : this is of some little 

 consequence ; for if the animal eats its way into the bark of the tree, 

 and there remains, it is unlikely that it feeds upon the Onisci 

 and Arachnides. Of the fact of the insect's eating its way into the 

 bark, I have had an opportunity of being well satisfied, having dis- 

 covered six or seven specimens in one tree : they had invariably 

 formed chambers for themselves, close to the outer surface of the 

 bark ; the tree was sound, and tolerably smooth outside. I found 

 no wood-feeding larvae in the tree, nor any traces of them. The 

 holes made by the Raphidice were so large as to induce me to think 

 that they had not been elsewhere since leaving the e^g. The grains 

 of wood filling up the parts of the cell not occupied by the insect 

 had the appearance of having been digested. Upon reaching home 

 with the larvae, I put one into a pill-box, with a small piece of wood, 

 which it immediately began to bite vehemently, and continued to do 

 so until I was convinced of its intention. The wood being very 

 hard, I put the larva into a box with a piece of bark : it crawled 

 to the under side, and in the course of a day or two had constructed 

 itself a cell resembling those which I found in the tree. 



At the time that I reared the insect (which was some years ago), 

 thinking that the larva was carnivorous, I put several larvae of Sca- 

 ly tus and other insects in the jar with that of Raphidia, but not one 

 of them was touched. Lately I have tried the experiment in various 

 ways. I put two specimens of Raphidia larva into a pill-box, with 

 several wounded larvee ; the result was the same. But with all these 

 circumstances, which seem to disprove that this animal is carnivorous, 

 I must confess that I am too reluctant to give up theory to be con- 

 vinced to the contrary, until I have ascertained that the insect may 

 be reared upon bark alone*. 



M. Latreille's description of the larva differs from that of M, 



* In support of the opinion that the insect in question is not lignivorous, it will 

 be recollected that the laiva is extremely active, that it is provided witli long an- 

 tennee, and that its jaws are not so short and strong as those of insects which are 



