92 Mr. A. ^run-ay on the Iiclations 



Lability that tlie coll should have been opened at that precise 

 conjuncture of time that it bei^an its attack. It is also still 

 more unlikely that, havlui:: been si'aled up with it, it should 

 not have sooner made its attack. It is so disresj)ectful to tlu^ 

 instinct of the Uhiniphori that the parent should have laid an 

 e^g in a cell already tenanted, and within reach of the jaws 

 of the tenant, that 1 shall not suggest that alternative. 



As to the lih ipij)hon(s-\n\\)K retaining the skin and mandi- 

 bles of the grub they have eaten in their grasj), Avhich Mr, 

 Stone alleges of this one and of otliers which he subsequently 

 observed, it is obviously a somewhat ludicrous blunder arising 

 from a confusion of head and tail. I presume that by retain- 

 ing in their grasj), he means holding in their jaws ; they have 

 no legs or claws to grasp with. But he must have forgotten 

 that the parasite began at the head and, of course, finished off 

 at the tail, and that it therefore should not be the mandibles 

 that " it retained in its grasp," but the other end. But it 

 seems to me clear that he had observed the old cast skin of 

 the larva, which lies at the botti^m of the cell, sticking to the 

 tail of the pupa, not retained in its mouth. We know that the 

 tail forms a ])Owerful sucker ; and, of course, it sucks up into 

 its cup, like the bottom of a seaman's lead, anything that 

 is lying loose at the bottom ; and we know, too, that the last 

 cast skin of a larva is very often found adhering to the 

 chrysalis. We know, also, that wdieu the larva undergoes 

 its transformation, its muscles undergo a com])lete degrada- 

 tion, becoming like milk, and all muscular power on the 

 part of the pupa at that particular period vanishes; As 

 the change goes on, the muscular power is restored by the 

 re-formation or consolidation of the muscles ; but the idea of 

 a pu])a holding anything in its jaws by the tenacity of its 

 muscular ])ower seems to me an impossibility. I have only 

 to add that none of my \)\\\)vt (and I have a number preserved 

 in Canada balsam) has either skin or mandibles in its jaws, 

 but most of them have them still adhering to the tail. This 

 fact seems to prove that, like my puj)a^, Mr, Stone's nnist have 

 had their heads to the mouth of the cell, instead of in the ])osi- 

 tion which his and Mr. Smith's hypothesis requires, at its ])ase. 



Next, as to the second and only other case of a Il/n'/)ij)//nrus^ 

 larva taken in the act of attacking a wasp-grub. The state- 

 ment is as follows : — " I was fortunate in discovering a small 

 larva of B/n'/>ij>/iorus firmly attached to its victim j both were 

 dead, and had become ])artially dried, so that, when immersed 

 in spirits, they did not separate, but remained attached just as 

 they were before death." 



This seems to me to be a case of a double occupation of 



