80 



PSrCHE. 



[July— August iSSS. 



hymciioptera^ almost too small to 

 breathe, one would think, mere specks, 

 which live solely upon insects' eggs, 

 piercing them with their egg-darts, 

 their progeny living imprisoned and 

 feeding on the contents until they have 

 run the cycle of their changes. Some 

 attack whole batches of eggs, laying 

 one Q^^ in each, so that one parasite 

 may destroy the entire brood of one 

 butterfly ; others lay their all in one or 

 two eggs, and it is to this class that 

 those belong which sting the eggs of 

 Basilarchla. How does Basilarchia 

 escape this danger? In the first place, 

 the mother rarely lays more than 

 one egg in one spot or even on one 

 bush, though as many as a dozen or two 

 may occasionally be found, where the 

 butterfly's numbers are great and they 

 are growing as it were imprudent. 

 Then it must be remembered first that 

 — to judge from the latest researches — 

 these parasitic flies must be guided less 

 by vision than by touch; and second, 

 that most insect eggs are laid on the 

 broader parts of the leaf on which the 

 young will feed ; it is here that the 

 parasite will range in quest of prey ; 

 but the eggs of Basilarchia are rarely 

 found except at the extreme tips of 

 leaves, and in addition the leaves of the 

 food-plants concerned are all acuminate, 

 some to an excessive extent, as in some- 

 of the poplars and birches. When the 

 parasite has, however, found an g.^^^ it 

 may well be inquired whether she 

 would not be deceived by it. It differs 

 from the eggs of all our otlier butter- 

 flies, in that it is besprinkled with little 



flexible filaments for all the world like 

 the hairs of some leaves. Or if the 

 clothing of the eggs did not deceive, 

 she might even then find it diflficult of 

 attack, for minute as these parasites are, 

 less than half a millimetre long, their 

 bodies would extend across at least 

 three of the polygonal cells which regu- 

 larly stud the surface of the egg, and 

 which send forth these little filaments at 

 every angle, so that poor bewildered 

 madam e must struggle through a weary 

 chapparal before she can attain the bar- 

 ren grounds at the summit and find a 

 spot to readily insert her sting. Yet 

 that she succeeds is only too evident to 

 the collector ; the larger part of the 

 eggs obtained in the open field which 

 have fallen into my hands have been 

 parasitized. 



This is its but too partial defence 

 against its special enemies. But how 

 about those wandering buccaneers, the 

 ants, mites, and spiders.'^ These labor 

 under the same visual defects as the 

 direct parasites, or sometimes greater 

 ones, and the position of the egg, re- 

 mote from their usual hunting ground, 

 must serve as no inconsiderable protec- 

 tion ; how great, there are hardly means 

 of measurement. Their greatest pro- 

 tection from these savages, which can- 

 not fly but must wander ceaseless!}' 

 about on foot in search of prey with 

 Satanic energy, is undoubtedly in the 

 fewness of their number on one plant. 

 The sjDider that finds two eggs of a 

 Basilarchia in one day must be an ex- 

 cellent hunter. 



Escaped at last from these dangers. 



