HETAMOBPHOSES. 5 



blossoms of a meadow-sweet, allied to Spircea ulmaria, but of a 

 greener colour, and the smaller specimens were obtained by 

 sweeping. 



METAMOEPHOSES. 



The manner in which the eggs of ICHNETTHOXID^E are laid has 

 been known for considerably more than a century in a general way, 

 but reliable accounts of individual oviposition are very rare ; nor 

 is it an easy matter to follow the development of these insects 

 through all its stages. It may, however, be said that the eggs 

 are deposited either upon or within the skin of Lepidopterous 

 and other insects, as well as on spiders, false-scorpions, and 

 centipedes, and that, if simply placed on the surface, they 

 adhere by means of the viscous matter with which they are 

 coated when first extruded from the spicula of the parent. 

 They are elliptic or pyriform in shape, and usually ashy grey 

 in colour, gradually assuming a darker tint on contact with the 

 air. Those of certain genera of the OPHIONIN^:, such as Ophion 

 and its immediate allies, are somewhat bean-shaped and are 

 attached near one end by a long slender peduncle to the skin of 

 the victim. The duration of this state has not been observed, 

 but doubtless varies greatly under diverse atmospheric and other 

 conditions. When the egg-shell splits, the enclosed larva does 

 not at once emerge, but begins to imbibe the juices of its host 

 through the fissure. The larva does not vacate its shell till after 

 the first moult, its cast skin having been found by Brischke and 

 some of the older authors attached to the egg. The internal 

 feeder now penetrates the caterpillar's skin and takes up a position 

 between the muscles contained in the splanchnic tissues and the 

 alimentary canal, on the dorsal surface above the stomach, upon 

 which it often rests, near the centre of the body, and nearly 

 always with its head in the same direction as that of its host. 

 Certain species of 17BYPHO9nr.fi, including our Monoblastus, how- 

 ever, are larviparous, since they may often be seen carrying 

 masses of what Gravenhorst thought were eggs, but which were 

 proved by Haliday to be living and often cannibalistic larvae, at 

 their anal extremity. In the PIMPLINJE and in Paniscus the 

 larvae are often external parasites, lying like a muffler round the 

 prothorax of their hosts ; while those of certain CBYPTIX^E feed 

 exposed upon the eggs of spiders, etc., protected by nothing but 

 the thread-sacs which enclose the latter. 



As a rule, entomophagous larvae are apodous, soft, whitish or 

 yellowish, nearly cylindrical or ovate, somewhat pointed at each 

 end, and always with a peculiarly broad lateral border of fleshy 

 tubercles, bearing dark spiracles. In the earlier stages of growth, 

 and in some cases throughout their larval state, they are curved. 

 They consist of fourteen segments, of which the first or cephalic 

 segment bears traces of antennae on the frons. below which is a 

 sometimes discrete clypeal area, anteriorly bordered and occa- 

 sionally reflexed. On either side, below this border, are attached 



