290 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG, 



whose activity and perseverance are equally conspicuous, 

 which includes the beautiful genus Chvysis and many other 

 hymenopterous and dipterous insects, imitating the insidious 

 cuckoo, contrive to introduce their eggs into the nests in 

 which bees and other insects have deposited theirs. With 

 this view they are constantly on the watch, and the moment 

 the unsuspecting mother has quitted her cell for the purpose 

 of collecting a store of food or materials, glide into it and 

 leave an egg, the germ of a future assassin of the larva, that 

 is to spring from that deposited by its side. 



The females of the insects of which we have been speaking, 

 in providing for their offspring, are saved the trouble of 

 furnishing them with any habitation. Either they occupy 

 that of another insect, or find a convenient abode within the 

 body of that on which they feed. But upon the maternal 

 affection of another large hymenopterous tribe, belonging to 

 Latreille's Family of Burrowers (^Fossores), whose young in 

 like manner feed on other insects, is imposed the arduous 

 task not merely of collecting a supply of food, but of in- 

 closing it along Avith their eggs in cells or burrows often of 

 considerable depth, and dug with great labour in sand, wood, 

 or the solid earth. 



The general economy of these insects is similar. Having 

 first dug a cylindrical cavity of the requisite dimensions, and 

 deposited an egg at the bottom, they inclose along with it one 

 or more caterpillars, spiders, or other insects, each particular 

 species for the most part selecting a distinct kind, as a pro- 

 vision for the young one when hatched, and sufficiently 

 abundant to nourish it until it becomes a pupa. Many thus 

 furnish several cells. This process, however, is varied by 

 different species, some of whose operations are worthy of a 

 more detailed description. 



One of the most early histories of the procedure of an insect 

 of this kind, probably the common sand-wasp {Ammophila 

 vulgaris), is left us by the excellent Bay, who observed it 

 along with his friend Willughby. On the 22d of June 1667, 

 he tells us, they noticed this insect dragging a green cater- 

 pillar thrice as big as itself, which after thus conveying about 

 fifteen feet, it deposited at the entrance of a hole previously 



