HYMENOPTERA. TEREBRANTIA. 185 



abdomen is crimson or a glowing coppery red, with some- 

 times a golden lustre; The wings and legs are rather 

 small, the proportion of the whole insect being somewhat 

 similar to that of many of the small wild bees, while the 

 resemblance is increased by the occasional aggressive use 

 of the ovipositor, which, however, having no poison-bag 

 attached, cannot be considered as a true sting. The 

 antenna? also resemble those of the bees in being de- 

 cidedly kneed. The Chrysis has a curious habit, by 

 which alone it might be recognised, of rolling itself up 

 when annoyed or alarmed into a little sting-proof ball, of 

 almost as perfect a shape as that assumed by the many- 

 jointed woodlouse, though in the Chrysis this form is 

 attained by merely turning down the abdomen (which is 

 very convex above and concave below), until it fits 

 closely upon the headside of the thorax, leaving the 

 wings sticking out, unprotected, in a straight line. In 

 this position it looks like a little jewel, half ruby, half 

 emerald. 



The chief structural peculiarity of the Chrysis, and 

 that from which it derives its name, is in the abdomen. 

 This appears to be formed of no more than from three 

 to five (according to the genus and the sex) large 

 segments, the remaining segments being apparently but 

 part of the ovipositor. They form small tubes, which 

 can be drawn into one another like the joints of a tele- 

 scope, and are terminated by an ovipositor resembling 

 in its main characters those of the preceding division. 



In habit the Chrysis is parasitic, not as the Ichneu- 

 mons, &c., but depositing its eggs in the cells formed 

 by the wild bees, sandwasps, and even into the long 

 deep tunnel of some solitary species of true wasp. 

 Here the larva feeds either on the stores there laid up, 



