HYMENOPTERA. 397 
Pimplas (Fig. 373), which belong to this group, have a very 
long ovipositor, which, with its two appendages, constitute three 
lancets, and enable them to get at the larve in their -retreats. 


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ea 

\ 
Fig. 373.—A species of Pimpla. Fig. 374.—A species of Ophion. 
The Ophions (Fig. 374) have a sickle-shaped abdomen. They lay 
their eggs on the skin of caterpillars, which they attack with the 
short, cutting auger with which they are provided. 
The Cynips, or Gall-insects, are small black or tawny Hyme- 
noptera, the females of which have an auger, rolled up spirally 
and hidden in a fissure of the abdomen, with which they prick 
the young shoots of plants. A peculiar liquid which they pour 
into the hole round the egg they have laid, causes an excrescence 
to grow, which is called a “gall.” The larva is developed .in the 
centre of this gall, and transformed into a pupa, and afterwards 
into a perfect insect, which makes its exit by a hole in the wall 
of its prison. Fig. 375 represents the Cynips of the oak tree 
