1870.) 79 
no longer as a means of locomotion. The head is now very small, 
transversely oval, with an eye-spot (containing six simple eyes) on each 
side. In this condition the larve lie curved up in a convolution of 
matted bodies of spiders, and egg-shells, which they slowly and clumsily 
wind. They reach a length of 7 to 10 millimétres, and on the 27th 
May I found a larva of this size. The pupation of the full-grown 
larva occupies a long time as in Chrysopa and Myrmeleon. The larva 
spins first a yellowish or greenish, round or oval, cocoon inside the 
Lycosa egg-bag, and seems to lie unchanged therein during almost a 
fortnight. The change follows in the middle of June, and in four weeks 
the imago appears. 
If a mother spider is placed with the egg-bag, it does not attack 
the Mantispa larvee, but leaves them uninjured in its nest, although it 
carefully protects it against larger enemies. 
[The foregoing observations by my friend, Herr Brauer, which I have 
freely translated and abbreviated, are an example of the patience and 
perseverance with which he works out the life-history of an insect— 
one of a series of many similar studies by him of the development of 
various Newroptera and Diptera. The paper concludes with a careful 
comparison of the so-called “hyper-metamorphosis” of Jlelée, Cecidomyra 
destructor, &c., &e., with the history of Mantispa, a dissertation too long 
for reproduction here. Herr Brauer has solved a perplexing problem 
in European Neuroptera; and it is reasonable to suppose that all the 
numerous species of exotic Mantispe have similar habits. Some of our 
more observant foreign collectors will probably test this supposition. 
A species of the allied genus 7richoscelia, which inhabits South America, 
is known to infest the large papyratious nest of a honey-making wasp 
(Myrapetra) ; and some years since I was in the insect-room in the 
British Museum when a section was made of a newly-acquired nest of 
this nature. In this nest were numerous living imagos and pupe (free 
and in cocoon) of Z. varia, Walker (Myrapetrella, W estwood), but memory 
does not serve me as to the existence of larve. There can, however, be 
but little doubt that these also undergo a similar metamorphosis—first 
being long-legged and attenuated, living free, afterwards becoming 
thick, almost footless grubs, parasitic upon the wasps. In what can 
consist the protective powers possessed by these antispide ?—powers 
which seem to act as an enchantment on such eminently predaceous 
animals as spiders and wasps, inasmuch as these freely harbour guests 
that prey openly upon their progeny.—R. McL. | 
