22 
INSECTS. 
Family Proctotrypibje. 
The members of this obscure family are minute insects, with scarcely a trace of 
nervures in the wings in some species; and the ovipositor can be protruded and 
withdrawn at pleasure. Though some of the 
species are wholly unlike the Aculeata, yet others 
approach them so nearly in general characters that 
the present classification must be regarded as 
tentative. The habits of these minute insects are 
imperfectly known, though some are parasitic in 
the eggs of insects and spiders. The perfect insects, 
small and black, with variously-shaped plumose 
wings, seem to prefer damp, dark localities, such as 
furnished beneath fallen leaves and debris of 
hedges. Here also may be placed the two species 
of egg-wasps ( Teleas Iceviusculus and T. terebrans), 
which are both shining black and very minute 
insects, shown in the accompanying illustration, 
where they are buzzing round the eggs of a moth, 
ready to insert their own. The females usually 
deposit their eggs in those of the family Bombycidce, 
as, for instance, those of the common lackey. 
Family CllALCIDlD^E. 
1/ 
This group includes a large number of small 
brans ; 3, Eggs of a moth with a Teleas brightly - coloured insects with metallic lustre; 
upon them about to pierce ana lay its ncarl three thousand European species being 
eggs within; 4, ihggs. (All but JNo. ^ r r & 
4 much enlarged.) known, while the tropics have not yet furnished 
their contingent of species. The antennae are 
always elbowed, and the wings broad with few nervures. Some of the larvae 
live in galls, devouring the grub of the gall-wasp or those of the other inhabitants 
of the galls. The members of the present order, scale-insects and plant-lice, are 
alike subject to the attacks of the species of this family. One species ( Leucopsis 
(jlgas) found in Southern Europe lays its eggs in the larvae of a mason-bee, which 
makes a cell of hard cement to protect its grub. Now the attacker has a boring 
apparatus, and the problem is how to ascertain the whereabouts of a grub, bore 
through the hard masonry, and lay eggs in the inmate. The cells are not distinct; 
but the whole number, which are made in a sort of colony, are covered with 
cement, so that the task is doubly difficult. With the divining powers apparently 
situate in the antennae, a suitable spot is chosen, and after, it may be, an hour or so 
of continuous boring, the succulent morsel is reached and the egg laid. How the 
wasp knows where the grub lies is not known. It seems to have the power—if not 
of seeing—at any rate of feeling literally through a brick wall. One of the largest 
members of the family is the gouty-legged wasp ( Smicra clarifies), the egg 
of which is laid in the larvae of certain water-insects. The wasp is glistening 
EGG-WASPS. 
1, Teleas Iceviusculus ; 2, Teleas tere- 
