102 Rev, Mr. ys Continuation of the 
hinted before, that there are not lefs than three Jchneumons attached 
to it. If Providence for wife ends has created fo deftru&tive an in- 
fe&, it has been no lefs attentive to prevent it from becoming too 
numerous, by making it the food of fo many other infects. . 
- "Upon the feventh of June I obferved a very minute Ichneumon 
exceedingly bufy upon the ears of wheat, which at firít I took for 
Ichneumon Tipule (r); but upon a clofer examination I found it to be 
a fpecies entirely di(tin&t (s), as will appear when I come to defcribe 
it. -As foon as I was convinced of this, and obferved that it pierced 
the florets at a time when no larvae had made their appearance, I 
conjectured that it muft lay its eggs in the eggs of the Tipula. How 
far this conjecture was well or ill founded muft be determined by 
future obfervations, as I do not think I have collected, fa&ts fuffi- 
cient to decide the queftion. This. infe& is furnifhed with an acu- 
feus three or four times its own length (2), which is finer than a 
hair and nearly as flexile: this is. commonly « concealed within the . 
abdomen, but when the animal is engaged in laying its eggs it is 
exerted: one day it gave mea full opportunity of examining this 
 procefs It inferts its aculeus between the valvules of the corolla 
near the top of the floret ; its antennz are then nearly doubled and 
motionlefs, its thorax is elevated, and its, head and abdomen de- 
preffed : the latter, when it withdraws. the aculeus, is moved fre- 
quently from fide to fide before it can extricate it. This infe& has 
allowed me to examine its operations under a lens for fix or feven 
minutes: upon opening the floret into which it had introduced its 
aculeus I could find neither egg nor larva of the Tipula; but; upon 
examining it very clofely under three glaffes, I difcovered, fcattered 
over one of the valvules of the corolla, a number of lobules eggs 
* 
Ar) Linn. Tranf. iv. p. 226. Tab. i Ww. fig. 8. (s) Fig. 4. " Fig: Ppa: 
| diss extremely 
