OF THE WASP. 85 



if creeping out of it, and the part which had freed itself of the tail was 

 at the bottom of the cell adhering to the excrements. They have no 

 progressive motion even when taken out of the cell, and their motion 

 in the cell is but little. I observed, when the comb or partition was 

 perfectly free from motion, that the maggots were motionless ; but by 

 touching any one part of it the whole of the maggots would instantly 

 move ; so that the whole surface was in motion, and then immediately 

 became quiet again. This was probably in expectation of food, like 

 young birds. ' Whether they see or not, I have not been able to deter- 

 mine ; but I can observe two dark lines on the sides of the head, placed 

 on two globes which are hard to the touch. 



If by accident the chrysalises are misplaced, the old ones replace 

 them. I observed wasps take some maggots that had tumbled out in 

 their forceps, and carry them from place to place and put them in an 

 empty cell. When the maggot-wasp is ready for the chrysalis state, 

 it makes its own covering for the cells, and also lines it at the bottom ; 

 but the lining becomes thinner and thinner towards the bottom. I 

 observed them at work weaving the white lining, before mentioned, 

 from a small thread which came out of their mouth, by which weaving 

 the maggot becomes much smaller in size. It then seems to rest from 

 its labours of eating, and begins to change the present parts for those 

 peculiar to the fly-state, which now begin to form. Their maggot- 

 coat seems to get loose, and the parts within may be seen through it. 

 What was the head of the maggot seems to decay, and the two eyes of 

 the fly are seen on the shoulder part of the maggot ; the head of the 

 fly having formed on the shoulders of the maggot. 



It would appear, then, from the above observations : — -first, that the 

 egg is laid in a cell ; secondly, that it is not necessary the cell should 

 then be complete, perhaps better that it be not ; thirdly, that most 

 probably the cell is completed as the maggot grows ; fourthly, that 

 the old wasp feeds the first young in the maggot-state, and the suc- 

 ceeding ones are fed by the labourers ; fifthly, that the maggot, when 

 ready to fall into the chrysalis state, covers itself with a juice spun out 

 of its own body like the silk-worm. While in the cell, a complete 

 change is made ; there is not a single part of the old body remains, 

 and the new parts formed are much more numerous than the old ; 

 of which transformation, although probably the most curious part of the 

 whole, yet as I do not conceive there is any material difference between 

 it and that of insects in common, I shall not take notice here. 



Of the internal parts of the Maggot. — The oesophagus is very short 

 and small, and swells into an oblong bag, the stomach. The stomach 

 is very near the whole length of the animal : it passes in the direction 



