244 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY , Vol. XX. 



came with a pellet of mud and began closing up the cell opening. Two or 

 three trips more, and the cell was completely sealed up. Soon after this was 

 done I scared away the wasp which was lingering and had the cell with its 

 contents gently removed intact to a breeding cage. The parent wasp, mean- 

 while returned to the spot where the cell was and searching for about 7 or 8 

 minutes, flew away in evident despair. 



The egg must have been laid at about 2-15 p.m. The cell was then gently 

 opened and the contents examined. Attached to the inner wall by a slender 

 thread was found the egg and within the rest of the space of the cell were 

 closely packed together the three big caterpillars with hardly any extra space 

 for these paralysed creatures for any motion. The egg is a very slender rod- 

 shaped delicate object and measures 3| m.m. in length. In colour it is 

 whitish. In two days more, viz., by the 15th December the egg was found 

 hatched and the little grub attacking the caterpillar close to it. The grub on 

 hatching measures 4 m.m. and has the same whitish colour with a small 

 shining head and is footless. Within three more days the caterpillars are all 

 consumed and the grub grows in size remarkably. It assumes a stout cylin- 

 drical structure and has a ventrally bent posture like that of a cockchafer- 

 grub ; it is of a shining whitish green colour at this stage. For the next ten 

 days the grub continues in the same stage without food, but it spins silk and 

 paves the floor of the cell (the grub was removed to a small pill-box after the 

 three caterpillars were consumed) with a soft matting of transparent white 

 silk. On the 11th day, viz., on the 29th December, the grub moulted and 

 entered the pupa stage. 



At this stage the insect acquires all the future organs in miniature ; the 

 wings are found as very minute pads. In colour it is golden yellow. The, 

 abdomen is bent ventrally and attached to the slender pedicel by a thin white 

 membrane. The notched eyes gradually turn red, dark-brown and then black 

 in course of a few days. The wings appear as brown patches and gradually 

 enlarge. The insect remained, in the pupa stage for 18 days, viz., up to the 

 16th January, when it cast away the pupal skin and emerged as the adult with 

 all the specific colour markings and features. The wasp, however, is only able 

 to freely move and fly about in two more days. On the 18th the insect 

 completely attained the mature stage. The period of life from egg to imago 

 in this case was briefly as below : — 



Egg stage 13th to 15th Dec. 2 days. 

 Grub stage 15th to 29th Dec. 14 days. 

 Pupa stage 29th Dec. to 16th Jan. 18 days. 



Thus one generation from egg to imago was found to occupy a little more, 

 than a month. 



T. V. RAMAKRISHNA AIYAR. 



(&.)— Entomological Notes from a Recent Tour. 

 During a recent tour in the Southern Maratha Country, in which only a. 



