


398 THE INSECT WORLD. 
Pimplas (Fig. 373), which belong to this group, have a very 
long ovipositor, which, with its two appendages, constitute three 
lancets, and enable them to get at the larve in their retreats. 


Fig. 373.—A species of Pimpla. Fig. 374.—A species of Ophion. 
The Ophions (Fig. 3874) have a sickle-shaped abdomen. They lay 
their eggs on the skin of caterpillars, which they attack with the 
short, cutting auger with which they are provided. 
The Cynips, or Gall-insects, are small black or tawny 
Hymenoptera, the females of which have an auger, with which 
they prick the young shoots of plants, rolled up spirally and 
hidden in a fissure of the abdomen. A peculiar liquid which they 
pour into the hole round the egg they have laid, causes an 
excrescence to grow, which is called a “gall.” The larva is 
developed in the centre of this gall, and transformed into a pupa, 
and afterwards into a perfect insect, which makes its exit by a 
hole in the wall of its prison. Fig. 375 represents the Cynips of 





