OF HARTING. 379 



ichneumons is that of the Peach flies, or Ruby tails, of 

 which the genus CJirysis is the type, but in their economy 

 and oviposition the two groups differ materially. The 

 business of Qirysis is to watch assiduously the nidifi- 

 cation of the insect on which it is parasitic, generally 

 some species of solitary bee, and take the opportunity, 

 in the absence of the latter, of entering its burrow or 

 cell. It there deposits its egg in the store of provisions 

 already laid up by the bee for the future use of its own 

 grub; the parasite is the first hatched, and monopolizes 

 the whole supply of food before the appearance of the 

 other, which, as a natural consequence, is left to starve. 

 CJirysis ignita is one of the most brilliant of our Hart- 

 ing insects its head and corselet are a very beautiful 

 rich shining blue, and its abdomen has all the dazzling 

 splendour of burnished copper in the sunshine, with a 

 tinge of the ruby. The rapid vibration of the antennae 

 in CJirysis is incessant, and all the species are other- 

 wise wonderfully active ; but when an individual of 

 either apprehends danger from another insect, it rolls 

 itself up into a ball, leaving no vulnerable part of its 

 body exposed. We have taken several in many 

 localities, particularly on the garden wall among the 

 trained fruit trees, on dry sand banks at West Heath, 

 on old gate-posts, and on the flowers of wild plants. 



Hitherto we have treated of the families of this 

 order in which the ovipositor has no other function 

 than that of conveying the egg to its proper nidus, in 

 all the remaining ones this apparatus is connected, not 

 only with the ovaries, but with poison glands also, and 

 is thus converted into a sting as well as an instrument 

 of oviposition. Some solitary species that provision 

 their cells with other insects for the support of their 

 own young, sting their prey to death before they thus 

 dispose of them ; others only disable them, without 

 depriving them of life, so as to ensure a constant 

 supply of fresh food for the future parasite as long as 

 the latter may require it. Of the stings of those 



