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THE INSECT WOELI). 



Pimplas (Fig. 373), which belong to this group, have a very 

 long ovipositor, which, with its two appendages, constitute three 

 lancets, and enable them to get at the larvso in their retreats. 



Fig. 373. A specie's of Pimpla. 



Fig. 374. A species of Ophion. 



The Ophions (Fig. 374) have a sickle-shaped: abdomen. They lay 

 their eggs on the skin of caterpillars, which they attack with the 

 short, cutting auger with which they are provided. 



The Cynips, or Gall-insects, are small black or tawny 

 Hymenoptera, the females of which have an auger, with which 

 they prick the young shoots of plants, rolled up spirally and 

 hidden in a fissure of the abdomen. A peculiar liquid which they 

 pour into the hole round the egg they have laid, causes an 

 excrescence to grow, which is called a " gall." The larva is 

 developed in the centre of this gall, and transformed into a pupa, 

 and afterwards into a perfect insect, which makes its exit by a 

 hole in the wall of its prison. Fig. 375 represents the Cynips of 



