154 INSECTS AT HOME. 



ever, is disposed to take a different view of the case, as will 

 be seen from the following statement : — 



' It is certainly not the fact that female Rhipiphori are found 

 exclusively in female cells of wasps, and males in those of 

 workers ; for I have bred scores upon scores of both males and 

 females from the cells of workers ; nor can I perceive any very 

 great difference in the size of the sexes, although the females 

 are unquestionably somewhat larger, and much more plump in 

 appearance, than the males ; still there is nothing approaching 

 the vast disproportion in size which exists between full-grown 

 larvaj found occupying the cells of queens, and those found in 

 the cells of workers. The former must produce specimens of 

 gigantic size. 



'Then there must either be two distinct species, or there 

 must be a permanently large and small variety, the former 

 invariably depositing its eggs in the cells of queens, the latter 

 in those of workers ; or, if there is only one species, and no 

 permanent variety of the insect, it must be that the difference 

 in size arises solely from the fact, that some larva) have been 

 placed, or by a piece of good luck have placed themselves, in a 

 situation in which they have met with an abundant supply of 

 food, thus enabling them to attain the full and proper size, 

 and so produce Rhipiphorus as it ought to be ; while the 

 others must be looked upon as diminutive examples of the 

 insect, dwarfed and stunted by the limited and insufficient 

 6upg)ly of food allotted to the larva3 from which they were 

 produced.' 



Everyone who has walked in the country, and used his eyes, 

 must have noticed the well-known Oil Beetles, so called from 

 their curious habit of ejecting a drop of clear yellowish oil 

 from the joints of their legs when they are handled. One of 

 these Beetles, Meloe cicatHcosus, is sho^vn on Plate VI., the 

 male being represented at Fig. 3, and the female at Fig. 4. 

 The colour of these Beetles is dull, dark indigo-blue, and they 

 are wingless, slow-moving insects, especially the females, so 

 that they have no chance of escaping from capture, to which 

 their very conspicuous shape renders them liable. 



The life history of the Oil Beetle is a very curious one. The 

 female Beetle deposits in little holes in the ground a vast 



