o/'Rhipiphorus paradoxus. 201 



amount of food necessaiy for the bee, or it is' nourished upon 

 its larva. '^ If we look," Mr. Murray observes, " at the little 

 black deposit of digested debris at the bottom of the wasps' 

 cells, we find fragments indicating the consumption of hun- 

 dreds of insects not much smaller than themselves." This 

 statement is intended to prove the impossibility of Rhiin- 

 phorus being nourished upon a single wasp-grub. In my 

 opinion the fragments are merely fragments of portions of 

 insects with which the wasp-larva had been supplied ; these 

 fragments are no proofs of the wasps having eaten entire in- 

 sects. A wasp frequently carries off a large blowfly ; but 

 what proof is there existing to show that the entire fly be- 

 comes the food of a single larva ? I imagine such an inference 

 will scarcely be accepted as sufficient evidence to overthrow 

 the accumulation of facts recorded by a naturalist who is no 

 longer living to support his own opinions. 



It is assumed that Mr. Stone made his observations on a 

 larva situated in the middle of a comb, or at any rate sur- 

 rounded by other cells containing larvae, and that, having 

 found that which he had searched for during several years, 

 he took so little precaution in making his observations, that, 

 having seen the parasite feeding, he went away, returned, 

 looked into another cell in which was a mature larva of the 

 parasite, and in this manner was led to record a series of mis- 

 taken observations. I will venture to affirm that, had Mr. 

 Murray been acquainted with Mr. Stone's methodical way of 

 making his observations, he would have felt assured of such a 

 mistake being impossible. The larvae of Rhijriphoj-i, it is 

 affirmed, should always be found in sealed cells, if one wasp- 

 grub is sufficient to nourish them. Certainly, so they should ; 

 and be it observed that Mr. Stone, on taking out the wasps' 

 nest, proceeded to open the " closed cells." He afterwards 

 took thirteen nests which each contained Ehqjiphon, either in 

 the larva-, pupa-, or perfect state ; he afterwards records that, 

 on opening some " closed-up cells " appropriated to queens, 

 he found one larva and one pupa. I contend that the fair 

 inference to be drawn from this is that all were in closed cells. 

 Now it is quite possible that the larvas (he does not say what 

 proportion these bore to the pupte and perfect insects) were all 

 full-grown, having fed upon the grubs of the wasp : of course 

 they would then be solitary in the cells. Mr. Murray asks 

 what the mass of larva? were doing in cells by themselves. 

 There is no mass spoken of by Mr. Stone. And will Mr. 

 Murray venture to affirm that, as soon as a larva is full-fed, 

 it immediately assumes the pupa state? If he will, he will 

 do so in the face of an overwhelming mass of evidence to the 



Ann. cfc Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol. v. 14 



