59 



Epyris, which was now quite tame, wedged her prey between 

 loose pieces of soil, but not hiding it from view, left it to look 

 for a nesting place; she examined several holes or ledges and 

 finally selected a spot under a small piece of soil. During 

 this hunt she returned once to her prey; now she seized it as 

 before and carried it in a rather circuitous fashion towards the 

 selected spot, but here, on account of the steep and erumbling-^ 

 nature of the ground, could make no headway^ and so with 

 my assistance she disappeared with her burden beneath a piece 

 of soil. On digging in this place some minutes later I found 

 the Gonocephalum an inch or more in the ground and the 

 Epyris a little further in the soil. The egg had not yet been 

 laid. 



On Xovember 15 on a sugar plantation near Honolulu I 

 imearthed a Gonocephalum larva which had a small Epyi'is 

 grub feeding upon it. 



The wasp seems to form a sort of cell about its para- 

 lyzed prey and completes her work with laying a pearly white 

 egg upon her victim. The egg (Fig. 2) is about .70 mm. long 

 and is glued for its length along the middle of the 4th seg- 

 ment ; it is slightly curved along the line of appression, hardly 

 three times as long as thick, and slightly broader and blunter 

 at the head end, which, however, points towards the posterior 

 extremity of the body of its host. The latter lies on its back 

 in a more or less arched position. The egg hatches ni about 

 2 1/2 days, the larva crawling out to segment 5, commences to 

 feed on that segment; it is successful in penetrating or draw- 

 ing nourishment through the tough integument of the beetle 

 grub, so that it soon acquires a yellowish white color. In one 

 case I found on Epyris egg fijced along the side of the body at 

 about its middle length. The grub hatched and although its 

 host was dead, managed to feed to maturity on it. It docs not 

 seem probable that the mother Epyris pierces the integument of 

 her prey at the point where she lays the egg, so as to facilitate 

 the feeding of the issuing grub; she selects the 4th ventral 

 segment as a place for oviposition because it protects the egg 



