51 



over the mouths of the cells, her antennae in constant motion, 

 touching everything, and thrust her head into each cell in turn, 

 apparently feeding each larva with a drop of regurgitated fluid. A 

 few of these nests that we brought home to await further develop- 

 ments did not do well. The mother was always very sluggish and 

 loth to leave the nest, seldom feeding the brood, and though some 

 of the larviB span up, the mother eventually died, and the pup^e died 

 in their cells. It is probable that the aid of the mother is required 

 to help the young wasp out of its cell. 



A subject with wh'ch we had more success was the tiger beetle. 

 Clcindela ^ylvivola was common along the roads in the pine woods, 

 and we soon discovered the holes of tiger beetle larvje in numbers 

 in the banks by the roadside. If we watched one quietly for a little 

 while the larva would come to the surface and block the hole with 

 its head, but at the slightest movement was down again like a flash. 

 If we placed a fly or spider or caterpillar near the mouth of the 

 hole, the larva would very quickly perceive it and with a movement so 

 quick that the eye could not follow it, fling itself on the prey, retaining 

 its hold on the burrow only by means of the hooks on the hump of the 

 fifth abdominal segment and the stift" hairs on its tail pressed against 

 the walls, and disappear with its booty down the burrow. Whether 

 it devoured its prey at once or not we did not determine, but it was 

 very soon back at the entrance looking for more ; one larva in this 

 •way took two bluebottles, a spider, a beetle, and a small caterpillar 

 within a few minutes of one another. In digging out a number of 

 the larvae to take home we found both small larva? and those about 

 full grown, and also turned up a few beetles of <'. si/lrirola and a 

 single C. cainiicstrii^, but did not find any pupa3. These larvfe did 

 very well in captivity, and would readily adapt themselves to 

 burrows made with a piece of stick against the glass of a glass- 

 fronted box. Here, when full-grown, they would make a cell at the 

 bottom of the burrow, using the excavated material to fill up the 

 shaft of the burrow. By gentlj^ removing the glass without disturbing 

 the occupant, successful photographs were obtained of the larva in 

 its burrow, the larva lying on its back in the cell awaiting pupation, 

 the pupa supported on its dorsal tubercles with their spines, and 

 the freshly emerged beetle. Some of the beetles completed their 

 metamorphoses in the autumn, while others have remained in the 

 ■pupal state all the winter, and yet others have hibernated as larva?. 

 All the beetles that have yet emerged have been C. campestris. 



Another insect that we were anxious to obtain and photograph 

 in its early stages was the ant-lion {Mi/rmeleon fur mica ri us). Some 

 years previously Mr. Main had received an ant-lion fly from a 

 friend at Meiringen, but though we were on the look-out for it, 

 the end of our holiday was approaching before we discovered it. 

 Then, one day, as we were watching some tiger beetle holes, a 

 passing road-mender asked if we had found the " Ameisenlowe." 

 That sounded hopeful, and further conversation elicited the fact 



