THE SCOLIA. 
21 7 
larvae of the Mutillcz. The females have strong and spiny legs, 
fitted for excavating, and they also have dentated mandibles, so 
that the implements for forming cells are present, and therefore 
they are sure to be employed. The females of the North Ame- 
rican species have powerful stings and a very acrid venom. 
The Australian kinds are arranged under the genus Thynnus , 
and one of them has a most extraordinary history. 
Verreaux states that the males have long bodies, and straight 
antennae, but that the females, which are much smaller, have no 
wings, and twisted antennae. The male flies about, and carries 
the female with him, paying her the greatest attention, and placing 
her on flowers, so that she can obtain her nourishment. 
Frequently other males, which have not the happiness of pos- 
sessing a wingless companion, come near and appear enchanted 
with her company. Of course they all become jealous, and a 
fight ensues, and should her protector be unable to conquer the 
others, in order to disappoint, them he eats her up. 
The species of the great genus Scolia have females with 
strong and arched mandibles, and very spiny legs ; some of them 
include insects of very large size, and the commonest is often 
noticed in gardens in Central France, Italy, Spain, and North 
Africa. A Florentine naturalist, Carlo Passerini, studied the 
natural history of Scolia Jlavifrons in 1840. If old rotten trunks 
of oaks, or masses of tan, such as are used in gardens and 
hot-houses, are examined, very large larvae of a beetle are often 
found ; these larvae belong to the so-called Rhinoceros Beetle 
( Oryctes nasicornis). They are usually very quiet, and live in 
spaces which they have formed within the tan, and they are par- 
ticularly subject to the attacks of the females of this Scolia. 
The Scolia is searching for food for its future larva, and it 
finds out that the beetle larva is within reach, so it digs down 
to it, and stings it, so as to produce the curious stupid condition 
already noticed as invariably following such an attack. As soon 
as this is done a small egg is laid on the skin of the torpid 
creature, and is glued to it by a special secretion. A young 
larva is born from the egg at the end of a few days, and 
immediately commences to gnaw the skin of its victim with its 
mandibles ; it gradually forces its head into the wound, and 
