h the
Anthophora, of a naked larva and, with the Osmia, of a larva enclosed
in a cocoon.

[Footnote 5: Mites and Ticks.--_Translator's Note_.]

[Footnote 6: A genus of Beetles of which certain species (_Clerus
apiarius_ and _C. alvearius_) pass their preparatory state in the
nests of Bees, where they feed on the grubs.--_Translator's Note_.]

[Footnote 7: Another genus of Beetles. The grub of _A. musaeorum_, the
Museum Beetle, is very destructive to
insect-collections.--_Translator's Note_.]

On opening a certain number of these cocoons, we end by discovering
some which, in place of the Osmia's larva, contain each a curiously
shaped nymph. These nymphs, at the least shock received by their
dwelling, indulge in extravagant movements, lashing the walls with
their abdomen till the whole house shakes and dances. And, even if we
leave the cocoon intact, we are informed of their presence by a dull
rustle heard inside the silken dwelling the moment after we move it.

The fore-part of this nymph is fashioned like a sort of boar's-snout
armed with six strong spikes, a multiple ploughshare, eminently
adapted for burrowing in the soil. A double row of hooks surmounts the
dorsal ring of the four front segments of the abdomen. These are so
many grappling-irons, with whose assistance the creature is enabled to
progress in the narrow gallery dug by the snout. Lastly, a sheaf of
sharp points forms the armour of the hinder-part. If we examine
attentively the surface of the vertical wall which contains the
various nests, it will not be long before we discover nymphs like
those which we have been describing, with one extremity held in a
gallery of their own diameter, while the fore-part projects freely
into the air. But these nymphs are reduced to their cast skins, along
the back and head of which runs a long slit through which the perfect
insect has escaped. The purpose of the nymph's powerful weapons is
thus made manifest: it is the nymph that has to rend the tough cocoon
which imprisons it, to excavate the tightly-packed soil in which it is
buried, to dig a gallery with its six-pointed snout and thus to bring
to the light the perfect insect, which apparently is incapable of
performing these strenuous tasks for itself.

And in fact these nymphs, taken in their cocoons, have in a few days'
time given me a feeble Fly (_Anthrax sinuata_) who is quite incapable
of piercing the cocoon and still more of making her exit through a
soil