256 ZOOLOGY. [Part U. 



of records, reducing the paper to fragments ; and a shelf 

 of books will be tunnelled into a gallery if it happen to 

 be in their hue of march. 



The timbers of a house when fairly attacked are eaten 

 from within till the beams are reduced to an absolute 

 shell, so thin that it may be punched through with the 

 point of the finger : and even kyanized wood, unless im- 

 pregnated with an extra quantity of corrosive sublimate, 

 appears to occasion them no inconvenience. The only 

 effectual precaution for the protection of furniture is 

 incessant vigilance — the constant watching of every 

 article, and its daily removal from place to place, in order 

 to baffle their assaults. 



They do not appear in the hills above the elevation of 

 2000 feet. One species of white ant, the Termes Tapro- 

 hanes, was at one time behoved by Mr. Walker to be 

 pecuhar to the island, but it has recently been found 

 in Sumatra and Borneo, and in some parts of Hin- 

 dustan. 



Hymenoptera. Mason Wasp. — In Ceylon as in all 

 other countries, the order of hymenopterous msects 

 arrests us less by the beauty of their forms than the 

 marvels of their sagacity and the achievements of their 

 instinct. A fossorial wasp of the family of Sphegidce \ 

 which is distinguished by its metallic lustre, enters by 

 the open windows, and disarms irritation at its movements 

 by admiration of the graceful industry with which it 

 stops up the keyholes and similar apertures with clay in 

 order to build in them a cell, into which it thrusts the 

 pupa of some other insect, within whose body it has pre- 

 viously introduced its own eggs ; and, enclosing the whole 

 with moistened earth, the young parasite, after under- 

 going its transformations, gnaws its way into light, and 

 emerges a four-winged fly.^ 



1 It belongs to the genus Pelopceus, 

 P. Spinolcp, St. Fargeau. The Amjnilcx 

 comjiressa, which drags about the hxr- 

 vse of cockroaches into which it has 



implanted its eggs, belongs to the 

 same family. 



2 Mr. E. L. Layard has given an 

 interesting accoimt of this Mason 



