1832.1 Notes in Natural History. 555 



owing, however, to the had state of the weather, I made very few additions to my 

 collection of insects, and being unable from the continued rain to venture far from 

 the tents, I was amusing myself with watching the camels feeding among the trees 

 under which we had encamped, when I espied a large tick slowly crawling on tlie 

 ground ; it was much swollen, and had probably recently fallen from one of tha 

 camels. I secured it in a small box which I carried with me for such purposes, 

 and afterwards in the hurry of returning to cantonments, forgot all about it, by 

 which means it was left imprisoned until the 17th of September, nearly a month 

 afterwards, when on opening tbe box, I found the insect not only alive, but liter- 

 ally buried in a mass of minute ova, of a brown colour. 



I proceeded forthwith to ascertain the number of eggs, which it had deposited 

 during its long and solitary confinement, but owing to their minuteness and my 

 wish to be accurate in counting them, I found I had assigned myself no easy 

 task : — 



Remembering, however/the old saying of " faint heart never won, &c." I per- 

 severed, and at the end of more than four hours, by which time I was completely 

 tired, I found that I had waded through the almost incredible number of 5,283 

 ova. 



These I kept for six days longer in a small glass phial, at which time the parent 

 died, and the young were hatched, when I destroyed the whole family for fear of 

 their infesting the house. 



In a former note, I mentioned the great number of young produced by spiders, 

 and hawing since discovered one of the means by which they are kept within due 

 limits, I shall proceed to give a slight sketch of their enemy and the purpose to 

 which it applies them. 



During the rainy season, but more especially at its close, a beautiful species of 

 Sphex, may be observed continually entering the room and searching for a con- 

 venient spot whereon to build its cell, sometimes selecting the leg of a table or 

 chair, but more generally the wall or door-posts. 



This done, it next brings in its mouth small portions of wet clay, with which it 

 plasters the spot and forms a foundation upon which it builds its cell, rounding it 

 into a cylindric form*, and always commencing at the bottom and working up- 

 wards to the mouth of it. 



Having thus prepared the cell for the reception of its offspring, the sphex flies 

 off in search of a spider, which it deposits at the bottom of the cell and upon which 

 it fastens its egg. 



It then again proceeds in search of more spiders, which are all placed in the cell 

 for the purpose of nourishing the young grub when hatched from the egg. 



The cell is then carefully closed with wet clay, and the sphex leaves it. 



The grub when hatched, lives upon the store of food previously provided for it, 

 and when it has consumed this, becomes a pupa, in which state it remains for some 

 little time, and when ready to assume its imago or perfect form, it bores a hole 

 through its prison walls and makes its escape. 



Several of these cells were formed in different parts of my Bungalow, sometimes 

 singly, sometimes in pairs closely joined side by side ; when in pairs they are ge- 

 nerally plastered over with a coat of clay which conceals their real form. 



* These cells when fixed to a wall or other flat surface, have the one side flat, and 

 the other rounded or cylindriform. 



