388 NATURAL HISTORY OF HARTING. 



stratagem for the purpose of ridding themselves of 

 their tormentors. An infested individual seeks an 

 ant hill, on which it throws itself on its back, and sets 

 up a loud buzzing noise, the ants soon take the alarm, 

 swarm out of their nest, and at once fall upon the 

 noisy cause of the disturbance, but the latter, with its 

 legs now rigidly extended and motionless, as if it were 

 simulating death, escapes molestation, while the soft 

 bodied mites, hurriedly coursing over its body, are 

 very quickly despatched, and the relieved Bombus, 

 without the ceremony of apologizing for its trespass, 

 gives itself a comfortable shake and flies away ! 



The next order* is composed of a single family of 

 very minute insects, parasitic on wild bees and wasps 

 in their perfect state, but as we are only acquainted 

 with them through published figures and descriptions, 

 we can only infer that from the general abundance of 

 the insects to which they are appropriated, these 

 parasites may be by no means rare with us, although 

 they escape the notice of the collector. The number 

 of species hitherto described is not large, and beyond 

 the fact that their attacks, unlike those of the parasites 

 in the preceding order, are not necessarily fatal, little 

 is yet known of their history. 



* Order STREPSIPTERA. From the Greek strepsis, a turning 

 or twisting and pteron, a wing. Wings four, the upper ones 

 rudimentary and contorted. 



