xxvn 



probably more than that number of times her weight. The 

 captor and prey were placed in a small glass-bottomed box 

 and looked at from time to time during the following two days. 

 On each occasion she was seen to be carrying the larva just 

 as when first captured, holding it with her mandibles by the 

 posterior end near the anus, so that it projected well in front 

 of her head. In spite of the apparently cumbrous burden 

 carried high in the air, she moved about with the greatest 

 facility. Although the larva was alive its movements were 

 extremely feeble, in fact more like those of one that had been 

 stung by a Fossorial wasp. 



" Late on August 6 I was reluctantly obliged to kill her, as 

 I was leaving home for a fortnight. She was still carrying the 

 larva when I stifled her with a drop of benzine, but this did 

 not injure the prey. I thought I could see several ova attached, 

 but these, when examined under a ^-inch objective, turned 

 out to be four larvae symmetrically placed one on each side 

 of the second and third thoracic segments of the victim. It 

 therefore became clear that the mother had been carrying 

 about the larva with her offspring attached and feeding. 



" On my return home on August 20 they were still attached 

 to their host and had evidently been feeding throughout in 

 the same position. On the following day the larvae had left 

 their host and had spun small white silken cocoons in a cluster 

 on the edge of the box. The cocoons were examined at 

 frequent intervals, and on October 4 imagines were found to 

 have emerged from all four, and were quite active. 



" The Bethylid almost certainly belongs to the genus 

 CepJialonomia, described by Westwood in Loudon's Mag. Nat. 

 Hist., vol. vi, 1833, p. 420, but it is doubtful whether the 

 species is W estwood' s formiciformis, loc. cit." 



Mr. Hamm's doubts as to the specific identification of the 

 insects were confirmed by Dr. J. Waterston, to whom I sub- 

 mitted the specimens together with Westwood's type material. 

 He kindly wrote on April 10, 1922 :— 



" Hamm's CepJialonomia runs down, according to Kieffer's 

 tables (Tierreich, 41, p. 242), to C. mycetophila Kieff., a French 

 species with which I am not acquainted. 



" The differences between mycetophila and formiciformis, 



