o/" Rhipiphorus paradoxus. 199 



of course there is nothing to be surprised at in its eating it." 

 In this instance, at least, we most cordially agree. 



I will endeavour fairly, and I hope without bias, to answer 

 the numerous questions offered for solution. I readily agree, 

 then, in the instance in which Miss Ormerod observed two eggs 

 in the same cell, one at the bottom, the other attached a little 

 way within, that in all probability one was the egg of the 

 wasp, the other that of the parasite ; but I do not consider 

 this to be necessarily so : I have myself found two, and, I 

 believe, even as many as three, eggs in a cell, in autumnal 

 nests — that is, at that period of the season when the nest is 

 crowded with the three sexes ; and I am quite sure that such 

 nests contained no Bhijjiphori. I never had the good fortune 

 to find a nest infested by the parasite. 



Mr. Murray thinks it likely that I can inform him how the 

 larva of the wasp comes out of the egg-shell. This term is 

 scarcely applicable to the eggs either of wasps or bees : shell 

 there is none ; and the thin skin in which the contents are 

 enclosed never appears to be cast off by the larva. At one end 

 I have first observed, in the process of development, the gra- 

 dual formation of a head, while the rest of the envelope I have 

 believed to become the skin of the larva itself. Whether I am 

 right in this or not, future investigation may decide ; but I 

 know that the late Mr. Newport, at one time, was of the same 

 opinion. 



The first question I am asked to reply to is one that I 

 am not prepared to answer ; but whether the larva of the 

 wasp is fed, after being hatched, before it reaches the bottom 

 of the cell, or not, in no way affects the main question. But 

 this question is put in juxtaposition with that of " How about 

 the young Ehipijjhorus-l'axYa.^ is that fed too?" Now the 

 inference is obvious — the egg of the wasp and that of the 

 parasite are hatched at the same time. Mr. Stone has told us 

 that in the instance in which he observed the larva of Bhijn- 

 jjliorus feeding upon that of the wasp, it was of minute size 

 (that is, recently hatched) ; and the wasp-larva at that time was 

 full grown. A question follows as to what the larva of the 

 parasite is like. Mr. Stone has given a description of the 

 larva amply sufficient to distinguish it from that of the wasp : 

 he says it is " more deeply furrowed than any larva with 

 which I am acquainted ;" it has also " a longitudinal furrow 

 down the back." To this I may add, as I have a larva before 

 me, that it is divided into twelve segments, the apical one 

 having an anal tubercle or style : I include the head in this 

 number ; and therefore, if the anal tubercle were counted as a 

 separate segment, it would increase the number to thirteen — 



