them alike attractive to the young collector and scientific entomologist. They are, however, not very numerous in New Zealand, several of the m

of interest which can be derived from their investigation, and I must therefore refer the reader to those ad

y And

rtipes (?) (Pla

sist of about ten oval cells, formed of clay, and neatly smoothed within. They are all constructed by a single female, which also provisions them with honey and pollen, depositing an egg in each. The larva, after consuming the food, changes into a pupa, from which the perfect insect emerges about January. If the reader will imagine a great number of these nests closely packed to

ms its nests in sand-banks, its cylindrical holes having a great resemblance to t

y Sph

ax (Plate II

g in it, closes the hole with a neat plug of clay, and leaves the larva to quietly consume its half-dead companions. Each female, no doubt, forms a large number of these cells during the summer. While cutting up old logs for Coleoptera, the entomologist will not infrequently come across these nests, when the insects may be found in various stages of development. Unfortunately, however, the sight which usually meets his eye is a large number of legs and other fragments of spiders, the fugax having long since deserted the burrow, and being very probably engaged in forming others in a neighbouring tree. These insects are very ferocious,

y For

ate III., fig. 3 ♂, 3a

they spin an oval cocoon of white silk, in which they are converted into pup?, and these the patient neuter ants may be observed carrying away with great anxiety when disturbed, risking their own lives to preserve their adopted offspring from destruction. The females, or queens, of which there are several in each nest, do not appear to participate in these labours, but are only instrumental in perpetuating the species, and the same remark applies to the males. A large number of these winged mal

y For

late III., fig. 4

however, that the male is very divergent. The larv? of this insect are covered with numerous minute spines, and may be often found in the nests; also the cocoons which they form when full grown, these latter being of a dark brown colour, and rather elongate. The

y For

late III., fig. 5

with a microscope of moderate power. The annual migration of the winged males and females of this species usually takes place on a hot day in the last week of March, at which time I have observed the air throughout a day's journey absolutely swarming with these l

Chalc

. (?) (Plate

s will be better understood by the reader after perusal of the life-histories of those two insects, which I have given on pages 60 and 74. The method by which the females of the Hymenoptera whose larv? are parasitic on insects inhabiting other

Ichne

citorius (Plate

y be frequently discovered inside that of the moth, and is quite white in its early stages, but as age advances all the colours of the future insect can be seen through the thin pellicle which invests it. The perfect insect makes its escape through a circular hole, whic

Ichne

eptus (Plate

gether under a single flake of the bark. The males are occasionally taken flying in the open, but I have never seen any amongst these large assemblages of females. Whether the ichneumons are parasitic on some insect wh

Ichne

ripes (Plate

tly destroy a considerable number. It entirely eats the soft portions of the insect, and may afterwards be found lying snugly within the hard empty shell of the deceased syrphus pu