ot? NATURAL HISTORY. 
it little apartments occu- 
pied by the larva, as you 
see in the figure. In Fig. 
211 you have one of the 
Fig. 211.—Magnified Bristle of the Gall. bristles magnified. 
465. The insects of the Ichneumon family have long, 
slender bodies, long ovipositors, and long antennee, which 
are in a continual trembling motion. The ovipositor of 
some species is exceedingly long, as in Fig. 212 (on the 
opposite page). The two bristles accompanying the ovi- 
positor can be brought together by the animal so as to 
make a complete sheath for it. These insects deposit 
their eggs in the bodies of the larve of other insects, and 
the larvee hatched from them live on these bodies just as 
the gall insects live on the galls in which they are hatch- 
ed. Those which have long ovipositors pierce with them 
the bark of trees or decayed wood, in order to find larvee 
in which they can deposit their eggs. Those which have 
shorter ovipositors deposit their eggs in the bodies of 
caterpillars which they find crawling about. We some- 
times see a caterpillar with a considerable number of 
little barrel-shaped silken bodies standing out upon its 
skin. These are the cocoons of the Ichneumon larvae, 
which, after living for some time in the fat of the cater- 
pillar, just under its skin, have come out and have spun 
their cocoons, that they might go into the pupa state. 
The Ichneumon family is very numerous. Carpenter 
states that there are probably over three thousand spe- 
cies in Europe alone. 
466. The Chrysidide, or Ruby-tailed Flies, are a small 
group, adorned with such brilliant metallic tints that they 
have been said to be the Humming-birds of the insect 
world. The females deposit their eggs in the nest of 
wild Bees and other Hymenoptera, and thus the larve 
eat the food designed by these latter for their own off 
spring. Here is a striking analogy to the habit of the 
English Cuckoo, alluded to in § 268. 
