American species of Hisj^a. 



149 



irregular or angulated shape. Never having traced the 



development of these eggs, I cannot positively affirm 

 them to belong to the Hispae, though I have but little 

 doubt on the subject. 



- I am, by no means, certain whether or how the HIspae 

 pass the winter, but presume that they hybernate, in the 

 perfect state, among the roots of herbage ; for there does 

 not seem to be more than one brood in the season, and 

 the perfect insects of the different species appear, at their 

 proper times, during the spring or summer, before the 

 larvae are to be found. It may be well to remark, that 

 the habits of these insects, in their natural state, are pre- 

 cisely the same as those which they exhibit when reared 

 in confinement, and that I have repeatedly observed 

 larvse, pupae, and perfect Insects within the subcutaneous 

 retreats where they pass through all their transformations, 

 and which they leave only when they are about to pro- 

 vide for a continuation of their race. 



Secure as they may seem to be, while in the larva 

 state, they are not without their enemies ; for a small 

 Ichneumon is endued with the faculty 

 them, and is furnished with a long piercer with whicli it 

 perforates the cuticle of the leaf and the skin of their 

 tender bodies, into which it conveys its eggs, committing 

 only one to a single larva. The grub hatched from the 

 egg of this parasitic insect lives within the body of its 

 victim, which has barely sufficient strength 

 the change to a pupa, when it dies, exhausted by the 

 remorseless gnawings of its intestine foe. The latter 

 completes, in a few days, its own transformations within 

 the empty pupa-skin of the Hispa, from which it eventu- 

 ally emerges in the winged state. Those w^hich I ob- 



of discovering 



to undergo 



Aucfust 



VOL. 1. PART II. 



20 



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