ENEMIES 153 



makes its own cocoon beneath the de- 

 frauded wasp larva, first forming a sort of 

 roof over its end of the cell. This roof is 

 light brown in colour and looks not unlike 

 the scale of a pine-cone seed. 



If the roof is carefully broken away, the 

 young usurper will be discovered wrapped 

 in a glistening silvery blanket, a royal 

 covering compared to the simple silken 

 covering of the young Vespa. 



There is nothing in its line, prettier than 

 the little tinsel cocoon one can pull out of 

 the raided cell, and within which lies the 

 infant chrysis. It is a little savage wrapped 

 in robes of savage splendour. 



Its transformations completed, young 

 chrysis finds its way out through its own 

 roof and through the tough cocoon built 

 by the despoiled larva, a small impertinent- 

 looking black fly with long sensitive 

 antennse. 



There are several other parasites, vege- 

 table as well as animal, that infest the 



