The insect is represented

The Pyrochroidse are known by the distinct neck, the rounded

thorax, and the form of the antennae, which in the males are

boldly toothed, as may be seen at Fig. d. The mandibles are

deeply notched at the- tips, the maxillary palpi have the last

joint rather axe-shaped, and the elytra are long, wide, and 149cover the whole of the abdomen. The typical genus has the

antennae longer than the head and thorax, and very boldly ‘ pectinated,’ or comb-like, in the males, in which sex the eyes are distant from each other. ‘Pectination’ is nothing more than a development of ‘ serration,’ or saw-like form, each of the joints being drawn out into a long and narrow tooth, sometimes on one side only, but often on both sides. The latter form of pectination is conspicuously see shown in many moths, as we shall

when we come to treat of these insects.

The forehead of the Cardinal Beetle is black, and there is a curved rust-red mark between the eyes. The thorax and elytra j are rich scarlet, intensified by a short velvety down with which j the surface is covered. This insect is as plentiful as it is handsome, and it may be captured throughout the summer. It is often one of the inmates of the sweeping-net, after that • implement has been used among the flowers of hedgerows. The larva is shown at Fig. a of Woodcut XV. It is whitish in colour, and inhabits decaying willows.

There are two other species of this genus, one of which, Pyrochroa ruhens, much resembles the preceding insect, but may be distinguished by its head, which is entirely black, and by the scutellum, which is black instead of red.

Of the family of the Mordellidse we shall take two examples. These are very odd-looking Beetles, and can at once be detected. The front part of the body is very large and deep, and the body rapidly slopes away towards the tail, where it ends almost in a point. The head is bent down, and, when the insect is alarmed, is tucked under the thorax, so that it is hardly visible. The first pair of legs are the shortest, then come the middle pair, the hinder pair being the longest of all. These Beetles are plentiful in the summer, and may be found in any numbers on the flowers of umbelUferse. The guelder rose j is also a favourite flower of theirs. In order to take them, the 1 best plan is to put the net under the flowers, and then tap the flower-stem, when the insects will loosen their hold and fall into the net. They are very active creatures, and in many instances it is a good plan to make a swift, sweeping blow at the flower, so as to cut it off, and leave it, together with its insect inhabitants, in the net.

Our first example is Anasjpis ruficollis, which is shown on Woodcut XVI. Fig. 2. In this genus the end of the abdomen | end in a pointed projection, or ‘ style,’ and there is does not a distinct scutellum ; the tarsi of the first and middle pairs j of loo's have the last joint but one with two lobes, and the . hinder tibiae have long spurs at their tips. The present species but covered with a short dusky down, the thorax . is black, tint. The mouth, base of antennae, and taking a warm-yellow legs Ire yellowish. This is a tolerably common species, and

It is to he

is distributed throughout the whole of England,

found in flowers.

We now come to a very extraordinary Beetle, named Rhipiphoi'us paradoxus. A figure of the insect is given on Woodcut XV*. Fig. 5. In this genus, of which there is only one British species, the head is not visible when the insect is viewed from above, and the antennae are doubly pectinated in the male and singly in the female. The antennae of the two sexes are shown on the same woodcut — that of the male at Fig. h and of the female at Fig. c. The generic name Rhipnphorus is formed of two Greek words, signifying ‘ fan-bearing,’ and is given to the Beetle in consequence of the fan-like antenna of the male. The thorax is much arched, and lengthened behind into a point that takes the place of tlie scutellum. The elytra are not closed throughout their length, but separate at the apex, where they are narrowed into points, the wings extending beyond their tips The colour of the head is black, and so is the middle of the thorax, the lobe on either side being brick-coloured. There IS a bold channel along the middle of the thorax. In the male insect the elytra are yellowish, changing to black at the apex, while in the female they are almost entirely black, with a s ight yellow tinge. The abdomen is orange. The Beetle is rather larger than female the male.

So much for the form and colour of this Beetle, and we now go into its singular will history.

Until comparatively late days, this insect was one of our very rarest Beetles, only one or two specimens having been canture/ and nothing known of their food or mode of life, this

their ignorance transformations being the reason for the specifc name para^, or ‘pnading.’ Accidentally, howevm, ite true habitation was discovered, and since that time it cannot be reckoned among our rarest insects, though the Beetle-hunter ? always glad to come on or the perfect insect. specimens It is, in either fact of one the ef larva, the pupa ^ ’ Beetles, taking up its abode’in “ --wasps’

were undecided as to its food, though they for entomologists that, like many, though not all, parasitic Beetles, conjectured it fed upon wasps or their larvae. This question was, however, set at rest by the late Mr. S. Stone, in a series of completely that were parasitic on the bees and experiments on insects wasps. Some of Mr. Stone’s extraordinary achievements with

insects will be mentioned in connection with the Hymenothese In the ‘ Proceedings of the Entomological Society,’ J an. ptera. Mr. Stone made a series of valuable communications 2, 1865, which ought to be given in his own words. on this subject, that he had previously found the pup® and After mentioning Beetles, but could not detect a single larva, male and female as follows : — he proceeds I was more fortunate, for, on taking out a nest

‘ On the 19th proceeding to open the closed-up cells, I of V. vulgaris and firmly attached to the full-grown found a larva of the parasite ; the mouth of the former buried in the body larva of the wasp the head; its neck bent over that of of the latter just below body appeared to be tightly compressed by its victim, whose the latter to be possessed of a that of its destroyer, showing power. It was of minute size considerable amount of muscular and appeared to have only very recently when discovered, its victim ; but so voracious was its appetite, fastened upon that in the course of the following and so rapid its growth, it attained its full size, having consumed forty-eight hours the exception of the skin and every particle of its prey with I have since been enabled which, from observations mandibles, in their grasp even after t ey to make, these creatures retain They scarcely appear to cease have passed into the pupa state. for a minute or so from the time except now and then eating, full-grown T e begin to feed till they have become they first The head is bent fonvaid one. lar/a is a singular-looking segments it is more deeply under the body. Between the with which I am acquainted. ^ furrowed than any larva doi^ the back from head to longitudinal furrow extends across. The sk n, cutting each segment the anal extremity, course of this fmrow, is per throughout the whole during life, that the workings of ‘I'e fe::trtransparenCso while alive, has the The body of the larva, may he plainly seen. skin filled with nnnute parof a thin transparent

appearance

i tides of curd. These appearances vanish after death, when the

body becomes dense, and has an appearance of solidity about it

which it had not before. Several pupae of the parasite were 0 foimd in the nest, as well as examples of the perfect insect. It I: also contained a number of cocoons spun by the larvae of Ano- D

malon Vesparum, with the larvae still unchanged inside the

cocoons. * ( ‘ Between the above date and September 3, I took out thirteen more nests of V . vulgaris, which contained examples of

Ehipiphorus either in the larva, pupa, or perfect state. In one which had been destroyed by means of gas tar a few days before I took it out, I was fortunate in discovering a small larva of Ehipiphorus firmly attached to its victim. Both were dead and had become partially dried, so that when immersed in spirits they did not separate, but remained attached just as they were before death. These are interesting, because in them may be seen the exact way in which the parasitic larva fastens on its prey. In another which I took out on September 2, 1 found, on opening some closed-up cells appropriated to queens, one larva and one pupa, which differed in nothing that I could discover from those of Ehipiphorus found in the cells of workers, except that they were something like double the size ; in fact, about as much larger as the wasps are larv» and pupse of queen larger than those of workers.

•Until the present summer I had not met with a specimen of Ehipiphorus since the year 1859, although I had made diligent search for it every succeeding summer. What had heconie of It all that time, and how it was that all at once it made i s appearance in such numbers, are questions more easily Mked than answered. Where it occurs it appears to be very ™ 1 ’ r n’' 1 particular f «Paae of ground aLut fo.u: furlof furlongs m length by two in width. I have searched for It in nests yearly obtained from other parts of the park and the surrounding neighbourhood, but always in vain.’

The reader will remember that the female Beetle is, as a « • panted that the larv^ of the female Beetles fed upon those of “ iCt "I? •’ "" largest cells and

re y 0 ained their superior development. Mr. Stone, how-

ever, is disposed to take a different view of the case, as will be seen from tlie following statement : —

‘ It is certainly not the fact that female Rhipiphori are found exclusively in female cells of wasps, and males in those of workers ; for I have bred scores upon scores of both males and females from the cells of workers ; nor can I perceive any very great difference in the size of the sexes, although the females are unquestionably somewhat larger, and much more plump in appearance, than the males ; still there is nothing approaching | the vast disproportion in size which exists between full-grown larvse found occupying the cells of queens, and those found in the cells of workers. The former must produce specimens of gigantic size. j

‘Then there must either be two distinct species, or there | must be a permanently large and small variety, the former invariably depositing its eggs in the cells of queens, the latter in those of workers ; or, if there is only one species, and no ; permanent variety of the insect, it must be that the difference s in size arises solely from the fact, that some larvae have been placed, or by a piece of good luck have placed themselves, in a situation in which they have met with an abundant supply of i food, thus enabling them to attain the full and proper size, | Rhipiphorus as it ought to be ; while the and so produce others must be looked upon as diminutive examples of the insect, dwarfed and stunted by the limited and insufficient of food allotted to the larvae from which they were supply produced.’

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