290 Mr. S. S. Saunders on the Habits of the 



sions, and witli others in the pupa state, though I have never 

 ohserved more than a single specimen in any one Piwipiliis. The 

 latter moreover would hardly be likely to withstand such inter- 

 ference with its functions of deglutition and interception of its 

 supplies for any long period. 



The circumstance stated by Mr. Curtis of a Connps having been 

 bred from the body of an Osuiia, wliich had nidified in bramble 

 stems, might seem to militate ag.iinst this theory of oviposition in 

 the perfect insect, if it be intended to imply that the Osmici in 

 question, having never been at large, had been itself reared from 

 those stems; but this wr.uld not appear to be averred, since the 

 Conors alo!:e is stated to have been bred, whereas the Osmia may 

 have been observed nidifying as aforesaid at the time of capture, 

 and not therefore exempt from attack in the imago state. 



With regard to the circumstance stated by St. Fargeau, of the 

 Conops being seen to introduce itself into the nest of certain 

 Vespidie, from which he was led to suppose " que les larves de 

 ces Conops peuvent vivre aux depens de celles de ces Hymenop- 

 ikres," it may be equally probable that the perfect wasps, on first 

 issuing from their larva cells, were the objects of attack. A general 

 impression, however, appears to have prevailed tliat the att;icks of 

 these parasites were directed upon the larvae. Thus Zetterstedt, 

 in his " Diptera Scandinavia" (tome iii., p. 924, 18 1'4), remarks 

 under the heading of Conops, — " Larvae parasiticae, in nido Bom- 

 borum degunt ;" and more recently in the " Insecta Britannica" 

 (Dipt. vol. 1, p. 305), we find it stated, in allusion to the habits 

 of the genus Conops, that " their larvae are parasitic on those of 

 humble bees." 



Dr. Siebold, in his description of the economy of a species of 

 sand-wasp, Oorybelus uniglumis, and of its dipterous parasite, Mil- 

 togrutinna conica (published at Erlangen in 1841), relates the man- 

 ner in which this parasite pursues the Oxybelus for the purpose of 

 deposing its viviparous larvae, not indeed in the body of the 

 Oxybelus, but in the fly conveyed by the latter as a provision for 

 its young; following up the Oxybelus for this purpose to the en- 

 trance of its cells. Similar habits are also ascribed by Dr. Sie- 

 bold to the Miltogramma punctata, in its attacks upon a species of 

 Ammoph'ila, for which it lies in wait in the vicinity of the sand- 

 burrows of the latter.* 



• I have had the opportunity of seeing this Rlemoire in tlie rich collection of 

 Entomological Works known as the Ilopeian Collection at Oxford, with which 

 those of Mr. Weslwood have been incorporated. 



