DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCOLIA. 



425 



oval cocoon, in which it passes to the pupal and afterwards to 

 the perfect state. This cocoon is a long oval in shape, tolerably- 

 alike at each end, but having at the upper end a sort of lid, 

 which is pushed open by the newly-developed insect when it 

 makes its way into the open air. Any of my readers who 

 would wish to see these curious objects, can do so by visiting 

 the Nest Eoom in the British Museum, where is a tine series of 

 cocoons brought from Florence, most of them being cut open so 

 as to show the method in which the inhabitant is packed up 

 within them. 



I believe that each species of Scolia chooses some particular 

 insect as the food for its young, or at all events that it selects 

 insects that are closely allied. The Scolia bicinda, for example, 

 places a single large locust at the bottom of its cell ; and some 

 entomologists think that several species of this group do not dig 

 burrows, but place their eggs in the nest of some Solitary Bee. 







/- 



Fig. 210. — Scolia procera. 

 (Black and yellow.) 



Many of the Scoliidse are large insects, and the species which 

 is shown in the above illustration is one of the giants of the 



