258 AUGUST. 



Ripiphorus paradoxus. This curious insect is, 

 I believe, invariably found in the nest of the common 

 wasp, or its immediate vicinity. The female de- 

 posits her eggs in the cells of the wasp's comb, and 

 leaves them to be fed, protected, and reared in the 

 same manner as the young wasps. This curious 

 proceeding is only equalled by the cuckoo, who 

 leaves her eggs to the hedge-sparrow. 



In this part of the country there are few wasp's- 

 nests without one or more of this insect, if the cells 

 be carefully examined. 



Locusta (locusts and grasshoppers). This country 

 is only occasionally visited by the devastating mi- 

 gratory locust (Locusta migratoria), which, with 

 other large species of the same genus, make such 

 tremendous havoc with every green thing in more 

 southern latitudes. The smaller species, to the number 

 of more than twenty, are found in this country, and 

 towards the end of the summer months tend to en- 

 liven by their chirpings almost every heath and dry 

 bank in the kingdom. Grasshoppers were held in 

 higher estimation by the Egyptians and Greeks for 

 their musical powers. Kirby and Spence contend 

 that these were Cicadas ; but if we are to believe 

 certain ancient gems in the Florentine Gallery, 

 they were clearly of the genus Locusta, to which 

 our grasshoppers belong ; and this fact is confirmed 

 by Kirby and Spence themselves, in vol. ii. page 401, 

 where they inform us, that in Spain " people of 

 fashion keep these animals called there Grillo in 



