the Wasp and Rhipiphorus paradoxus. 209 
The rate at which the Rhzpiphorus consumes the wasp- 
grub, although very rapid, is, according to my observation, 
not quite so much so as in the instance recorded by Mr. 
Stone. The nest came into our possession on the 27th of 
July. On the 28th I only found one egg (as above-men- 
tioned) ; all the rest were hatched, most of them very recently, 
the smallest being about a line in length. On the 31st of 
July the smallest were nearly 3 lines in length. n the 
2nd of August something went wrong with my specimens 
and they made no further progress ; they began to shrivel an 
change colour, and I bottled them ; but from watching the more 
advanced specimens when fresh, I saw that after they have 
become larger than their victim their progress is more rapid 
than before. That represented in figs. 5, 6, and 7, from 
Which the relative size may be estimated, had completely 
consumed its victim on the third day thereafter, but not on 
the second. 
I cannot say how far the unnatural condition in which my 
Specimens were may have retarded the progress of the 
feeding ; at first it did not seem to affect them; but, judging 
from what I saw, I should say that from eight to ten days 
would be the ordinary time that the Rhipiphorus takes to con- 
sume its victim ; iud adding three or four days for the egg, 
the whole business would seem to take about a fortnight. 
As the Rhipiphorus sucks, the wasp-grub at last, to all ap- 
earance, entirely vanishes. It does not do so absolutely, 
owever; for if the chin of the mature Rhipiphorus-grub, now 
solitary by itself, be lifted up from its breast (on which it con- 
stantly rests), there will be found (at least, I have found it in all 
my experiments) a tiny scrap of yellowish-brown animal matter, 
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser.4. Vol. vi. 14 
