. The three thoracic segments bear each a pair of tiny conical
nipples, of a deep rusty red, signs of the future legs. The stigmata
are very distinct, appearing as specks of a deeper red than the rest
of the integuments. There is one pair, the largest, on the second
segment of the thorax, almost on the line dividing it from the first
segment. Then follow eight pairs, one on each segment of the abdomen
except the last, making in all nine pairs of stigmata. The last pair,
that of the eighth abdominal segment, is the smallest.

The anal extremity displays no peculiarity. The cephalic mask
comprises eight cone-shaped tubercles, dark red like the tubercles of
the legs. Six of these are arranged in two lateral rows; the others
are between the two rows. In each row of three nipples, the one in the
middle is the largest; it no doubt corresponds with the mandibles. The
length of this organism varies greatly, fluctuating between 8 and 15
millimetres.[1] Its width is from 3 to 4 millimetres.[2]

[Footnote 1: .312 to .585 inch.--_Translator's Note_.]

[Footnote 2: .117 to .156 inch.--_Translator's Note_.]

Apart from the general configuration, it will be seen that we have
here the strikingly characteristic appearance of the pseudochrysalids
of the Sitares, Oil-beetles and Zonites. There are the same rigid
integuments, of the red of a cough-lozenge or virgin wax; the same
cephalic mask, in which the future mouth-parts are represented by
faintly marked tubercles; the same thoracic studs, which are the
vestiges of the legs; the same distribution of the stigmata. I was
therefore firmly convinced that the parasite of the Mantis-hunters
could only be a Meloid.

Let us also record the description of the strange larva found
devouring the heap of Mantes in the burrows of the Tachytes. It is
naked, blind, white, soft and sharply curved. Its general appearance
suggests the larva of some Weevil. I should be even more accurate if I
compared it with the secondary larva of _Meloe cicatricosus_, of which
I once published a drawing in the _Annales des sciences
naturelles_.[3] If we reduce the dimensions considerably, we shall
have something very like the parasite of the Tachytes.

[Footnote 3: It was his essays in this periodical, on the
metamorphoses of the Sitares and Oil-beetles, that procured Fabre his
first reputation as an entomologist.--_Translator's Note_.]

The head is large, faintly tinged with red. The mandibles are strong,
bent