between IVasjjs atid Rhipiphori. 91 



one who compares Mr. Smith's quotations from thoni and my 

 brief alhisiou to them in my former paper, I had not ilr. 

 Stone's jjaper Ijefore me when I wrote. My purjjose then was 

 to record my own observations, not to attack Mr. Stone's ; 

 and as I could not lay my hands on his paper, I rested satis- 

 fied with a quotation as to the nature of its contents, which I 

 received from my friend Mr. Pascoe. But now that I have 

 read it all, I see nothing, with the exception of the one case 

 whiclx I have already questioned, which appears to me inca- 

 pable of explanation, or, when rightly interpreted, irrecon- 

 cilable with the views I hold or with the observations I made. 

 His interpretation is of coui'se irreconcilable, but not the facts 

 themselves. 



]\Ir. Stone only gives two actual cases of the alleged attacks 

 of the Bhij)ij}Jior US-larva, on the wasp-grub. He infers more, 

 and Mr. Smith infers more, from his finding, as he thinks, 

 *' these creatures retaining the skin and mandibles of their 

 victim in their grasp even after they have passed into the 

 pupa state." I shall speak to that immediately — one thing at a 

 time ; but as to actual cases of this attack, the two given by 

 Mr. Stone are the only two recorded by him or by any other 

 person whatever. Of part of the first I have already, to a 

 certain extent, suggested an explanation ; but a portion of it 

 remains which is very difficult of explanation. He opens tlie 

 sealed lid of a cell in which should be a pupa, finds in it a 

 wasp-larva with a minute lihipqjJiorus-lnTvsL attached to it 

 with its mouth firmly buried in the body of its victim just 

 below the head ; and it appeared to have only veiy recently 

 fastened on its victim. May it not be possible that, in han- 

 dling the nest and picking out the larvae from the cells, Mr. 

 Stone had inadvertently dropped this minute Ithijjipfionts 

 from his foi-ceps into either this newly opened cell or another 

 beside it Avliich he confounded with it '? If it fell upon a larva, 

 of course there is nothing to be surprised at in its eating it, as 

 the wasp-grub would have done with it if it had got the first 

 chance. Both are admitted to be carnivorous ; and that they 

 shoidd eat each other when they have the opportunity is 

 only what might be expected. That those which I found 

 living amicably together, two in the same cell, did not attack 

 each other, was no doubt due to their having been brougiit up 

 together and sufficiently fed othenvise. They were like the 

 members of a young family of lions, which, although ready 

 enough to carry death and destniction with them out of doors, 

 live in peace and harmony at home. The fact that the little 

 Bhij)ij)hon(s had only commenced its attack is, I think, in 

 favour of this supposition. It is against all the rules of pro- 



7* 



