and Relations of the Wasp cmf/ Rhipiphorus. 347 



a wasp," which it devoured, except skin and mandibles, in 

 forty-eight hours. The milder supposition had the support of 

 Latreille and most subsequent authors (at any rate prior to 

 Mr. Stone's observation), who, although they always spoke in 

 somewhat doubtful tones, yet on the whole inclined to the 

 opinion that the Rhipiphori were bred by the wasps under the 

 mistaken belief that they were their own progeny. 



This still seems to me to be the true explanation ; and it is 

 supported by some observations which I have recently had the 

 opportunity of making, through the kindness of Miss Eleanor 

 Ormerod, Sedbury Park, Chepstow, a lady with more of the 

 true spirit and genius of a naturalist than any other whom it 

 has been my fortune to encounter. She has been kind enough 

 to assist the Horticultural Society in an attempt they are now 

 making to form a collection of what may be called Economic 

 Entomology — a task for which their connexions give them 

 peculiar advantages, and of which the commencement may be 

 seen housed in the South-Kensington Museum. 



The charge of the formation of this collection having been 

 entrusted by the Society to me, Miss Eleanor Ormerod's con- 

 tributions have consequently passed through my hands, and I 

 have had the advantage of profiting by her talents for obser- 

 vation. Among numerous other illustrations, she lately sent 

 a large wasps' nest, containing RMpipliori ; and it is the exa- 

 mination of this, and the picking out the larvae and pupee from 

 the cells to fit it for preservation, which has supplied the facts 

 I am about to mention. 



In France the knowing mode of procuring specimens of 

 RMpipliori^ as expounded to me long ago by my old friend 

 M. Chevrolat, is to note in summer the locale of a large wasps' 

 nest, and to return to it in winter, and then examine it. Miss 

 Ormerod's dealings with the wasps are simpler, bolder, and, 

 as will be presently seen, more instructive. The process will 

 be found detailed more at length in her brother Dr. Ormerod's 

 little book on wasps. Enveloping her head in a gauze bag, 

 which is made to stand out from her face by a broad-brimmed 

 hat, and is tied tightly round the neck, protecting her hands 

 by long and stout gloves tied tightly above the wrists, she fear- 

 lessly handles, rifles, or removes the largest and most formid- 

 able nest. Her subsequent perseverance and patience are not 

 behind her courage ; she tells me that she has picked out 3000 

 larvse and pup^e from the nest which is the subject of these 

 observations ; and the reader will presently see that the intel- 

 ligence with which every point of interest was observed and 

 noted during the process is equally remarkable. 



The nest which supplied our material in the present instance 



25* 



