256 



ZOOLOGY. 



[PAKT II. 



time a detachment of these pests will destroy a press full 

 of records, reducing the paper to fragments ; and a shelf 

 of books will be tunnelled into a gallery if it happen to 

 be in their line of march. The timbers of a house when 

 fairly attacked are eaten from within till the beams are 

 reduced to an absolute shell, so thin that it may be 

 punched through with the point of the finger : and even 

 kyanized wood, unless impregnated with an extra quantity 

 of corrosive sublimate, appears to occasion them no in- 

 convenience. The only effectual precaution for the pro- 

 tection of furniture is incessant vigilance the constant 

 watching of every article,, and its daily removal from 

 place to place, in order to baffle their assaults. 



They do not appear in the hills above the elevation of 

 2000 feet. One species of white ant, the Termes Tapro- 

 banes, was at one time believed by Mr. Walker to be 

 peculiar to the island, but it has recently been found 

 in Sumatra and Borneo, and in some parts of Hin- 

 dustan. 



HYMEXOPTERA. Mason Wasp. In Ceylon as in all 

 other countries, the order of hymenopterous insects 

 arrests us less by the beauty of their forms than the 

 marvels of their sagacity and the achievements of their 

 instinct. A fossorial wasp of the family of Sphegidce *, 

 which is distinguished by its metallic lustre, enters by 

 the open windows, and changes irritation at its movements 

 into admiration of the graceful industry with which it 

 stops up the keyholes and similar apertures with clay in 

 order to build in them a cell. Into this it thrusts the 

 pupa of some other insect, within whose body it has pre- 

 viously introduced its own eggs ; and, enclosing the whole 

 with moistened earth, the young parasite, after under- 

 going its transformations, gnaws its way into light, and 

 emerges a four-winged fly. 2 



1 It belongs to the genu 

 P. Spinolte, St. Fargeau. The Ampulex 

 compressa, which drags about the lar- 

 va) of cockroaches into which it has 



implanted its eggs, belongs to the 

 same family. 



2 Mr. E. L. Layard has given an 

 interesting account of this Mason 



