then proceeds in the same manner to the next, and so on, till all her eggs are emitted and laid in their respective cells, each cell being furnished with a single egg and no more. My correspondent assures me, he is not certain whether the male assists in building the nest, or whether it is the sole production of the female; but they both equally contribute to furnish it with provision, which they carefully watch and preserve from the ants, that in that hot climate would soon rob them of. In a little time the young ones are hatched; and each, finding in its respective habitation a proper quantity of food, subsists thereon, and there lives unseen, till it arrives to its complete state. When it (the caterpillar) is advanced to its full size, it forms round itself a brown case, as appears at Fig. 7. Plate 44. and at Fig. 10. Plate 45. and in that inclosure undergoes its transformation; when it puts on its form as at Fig. 8. Plate 44. remaining with its legs, wings, and horns, closed round, as is there shewn, till it has acquired strength to break its enclosure. At its first assuming this form, it is white, soft, and tender, and its wings shorter than those in the figure; in a few weeks its becomes hard, strong, and of its proper {101}colour. The wings, also, before that time, grow to their proper size; and now, finding itself arrived at a period when the forementioned circumstance of its confinement is no longer necessary to its well being, it obtains its liberty, by making a hole at the end of its cell, with its jaws and fore legs, large enough to permit its escape. "The separation of the thorax and abdomen, by such a long slender membrane or ligament, is very singular, and the power the insect is invested with, by means of those jaws or forceps placed at its mouth, is really wonderful; for the number of insects, of a superior strength, as well as size, which it is capable of destroying, is scarcely credible. It will overcome a spider of twice its own size, if it can but get upon the back of it, by means of its forceps and sting: nor will multitudes of other insects find it a less formidable enemy, if they are not guarded by nature with a covering too hard to yield to the force of these destructive weapons. In short, it seems to be an animal formed by nature, as one of those instruments instituted for subduing and lessening the vast numbers of small insects that abound in warm climates." PLATE XLV. [Illustration] LEPTOSCELIS PICTUS. Plate XLV. fig. 1. ORDER: Hemiptera. SUBORDER: Heteroptera. SECTION: Geocorisa, _Latr._ FAMILY: Coreidæ, Leach. (Anisoscelites, _Laporte_.) GENUS. LEPTOSCELIS, _Laporte_. Anisoscelis p. _Burm_. Lygæus p. _Fabr._ LEPTOSCELIS PICTUS. Niger, capitis lineâ dorsali, thoraceque crenulato rufis, hoc anticè maculâ margineque postico nigris, femoribus gracilibus denticulatis, abdomine supra cyaneo maculis marginalibus rufis. (Long. Corp. 7½ lin.) SYN. Cimex pictus. _Drury, App. vol._ 2.