Marvels of insect life ; a popular account of structure and habit . s much like the grub of a wood-wasp.^ By the time it is ready for its next change it has entirely eaten the wasp-grub, and has become large enough to fill the top of the cell of its victim, where it changes to a chrysalis. The whole of this life-history from the hatching of the egg to this point is comprised in one this article was sup-posed to be about the blister-beetle and the oil-beetle only, we have thought it well to include these other beetles of similar parasitic habit, as parasitism is a very rare phenom
Marvels of insect life ; a popular account of structure and habit . s much like the grub of a wood-wasp.^ By the time it is ready for its next change it has entirely eaten the wasp-grub, and has become large enough to fill the top of the cell of its victim, where it changes to a chrysalis. The whole of this life-history from the hatching of the egg to this point is comprised in one this article was sup-posed to be about the blister-beetle and the oil-beetle only, we have thought it well to include these other beetles of similar parasitic habit, as parasitism is a very rare phenomenon among beetles, and the habit produces such similar results in those that practise it, though they are not all closely related. In the vast majoritx of bc^etles the grub is either an active, sIcikUt creature with six fairlv long legs, or it is somewhat inactive and fat, with very short ineffective feet, or none at all. It mav be surmised that the first-named was the tv])e of the xh prmitive beetle-lar\-a, and that at a later stage in the exolution of the race. Enemy to Loclsts. pieanta-beetle lavs her eggs near the buried cgg-niasses of theKockv .Mountain locust, and when they hatch the grubs devote them-sehes to feeding upon the locust eggs, and so help to keep down thenumbers of a pest whosi; ravages have at times caustd serious financialdifficulties. 1 Cnvbro. 122 Marvels of Insect Life. the type changed to suit a more shiggish mode of hfe. In the examples we havegiven of these parasitical beetles we see this evolutionary progression being repeatedin each individual, as though it were an object-lesson retained by nature to let us seejust how the change from one type to another may have been effected in the branchingoff of families from the primitive beetle stock. In the majority of beetle-larvse thetriungulin stage appears to have been suppressed, unless the equivalent of it is passedthrough before the egg hatches. The Snake-Fly. The snake-fly ^ gets its name from its re
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjecta, booksubjectinsects
