﻿156 [December, 



which, though it seems a likely, would certainly be an awkward, occur- 

 ence. G. bidentata remains longer than G. ignita in the egg-state. Of 

 a number reared by me from the egg, most were hatched two days 

 after they were collected, but one remained for three days, and another 

 did not hatch until the fifth day, and from the time of hatching the 

 larvae were eleven days in becoming full-fed. The eggs of G. bidentata 

 are 1.5 millimetres in length, white, cylindrical, and very slightly 

 arched ; those of O. spinipes are larger, 2.5 millimetres in length, yellow 

 in colour, and more arched. I failed to detect the egg of G. neglecta, 

 principally, I believe, because the interval between its being deposited 

 and hatching is so short, and also because I did not quite know where 

 to look for it. It probably resembles that of G. bidentata, and is to be 

 found at the time the cell is closed up by O. spinipes, and for only 

 a few hours afterwards ; but of this I was not aware at the proper 

 season. 



The young larva of G. bidentata seizes that of O. spinipes with its 

 jaws, pinching up a fold of skin, and contrives to extract fluid nutri- 

 ment from it, without, apparently, making any aperture in the skin, 

 until it approaches to mature growth itself. I have very carefully 

 examined larvae of O. spinipes that were thus half sucked away (I 

 cannot say eaten), and I could find no mark at the spot whence I had 

 just removed a larva of Ghrysis. I have several times squeezed the 

 Odynerus larva firmly, without any fluid exuding ; even when squeezed 

 almost to bursting, on only one occasion did a drop of clear fluid exude« 

 Nor is the Ghrysis larva particular as to where it seizes the Odynerus ; 

 any point that may offer itself to its jaws being seized. 



When the devourer is nearly full-grown, and the victim is very 

 flaccid, a process that may be called eating takes place, and the spinipes 

 larva almost entirely disappears. The manner in which the larvae of 

 G. neglecta and ignita and of O. spinipes itself eat the little green grubs 

 is precisely similar; when young, they merely suck the juices of several, 

 and sometimes return to and finish these when they are larger, but 

 they may often be found neglected when the larva is full-grown. 



The larva of G. bidentata casts its skin four times during its growth, 

 at tolerably regular intervals, of about two days. I have twice seen 

 this process in operation : the skin splits down the back of the anterior 

 segments, and the corneous covering of the head splits into two lateral 

 halves, which remain attached to the skin when the shedding is com- 

 pleted. As compared with the larvae of the Lepidoptera and Goleoptera, 

 they feed up so rapidly, that one marvels how they have time to change 

 their skins so often ; many a Lepidopteron requiring four or five days 



