58 



INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



nest of the mason wasp. But although the insect 

 appeared not to be disturbed by my observations, yet 

 1 was unable to perceive whether the toothed portion 

 of the borer was pushed beyond the sides of the sheath. 

 What I did see, however, convinced me that the in- 

 strument was worked in a manner well adapted to 

 make its way through the mortar; for she turned it 

 half round alternately from right to left and from left 

 to right, as a carpenter would his brad-awl, and 

 employed altogether more than a quarter of an hour 

 before she succeeded in penetrating to a sufficient 

 depth.'* 



Ichneumon flies ovipositing, a a, an ichneumon fly. & 6, its 

 ovipositor, c, an ichneumon, which has just bored through the 

 closed substance of a sand wasp's nest at < , into which her ovi- 

 positor, d, descends to the coil of caterpillars at/, where the 

 egg is laid. 



t Reaumur, Mem. vi, p. 304. 



