THE BUTTERFLY 



5T 



and cuts the leaves in pieces of a definite shape. The pieces flutter 

 to the ground, are picked up by another gang and carried to the 

 entrance of tlic ant-hill, where 

 they are deposited to be carried 

 into the nest Ijy a third relay. 

 The bits of leaves are used to 

 line certain of the passage- 

 way's, and a fungus is grown 

 upon them which serves the 

 ants as food. The leaves are 

 probably stored to provide this 

 fungus food. 



The parasitic Hymenop- 



tera have the habit either 



of laying eggs in the body of ^^^ ^^3.- 



another insect, — one of the 



plant-lice, a caterpillar, or 



other species, — or else they lay their eggs in the nest of some 



species of insect so that the larva can make its own way into 



the host (Figs. 61-6.3). The long, tail-hke ovipositors of the 



-Cocoons of Microgaster, a para- 

 sitic hymenopter, on a sphinx Iar\'a. 

 Photo, from the living object by V. H. L. 



Fig. 63. — Ophion, an Ichneumon which infests caterpillars. Nat. size. 

 Photo, by W. H. C. P. 



