XXIII 



PARASITICA 



5 6l 



This family is of enormous extent ; we have several hundred 

 species of it in Britain/ and there are no doubt many thou- 

 sands of undescribed exotic forms. To Apanteles glomeratus we 

 are indebted for keeping our cabbages and kindred vegetables 

 from destruction by the caterpillars of the white butterflies. 

 The larvae of the various species of Pieris, as well as those of 

 other Lepidoptera, are attacked by this little Insect, the masses of 

 whose cocoons may frequently be found in numbers in and near 

 cabbage gardens. The tropi- 

 cal species of Braconidae are 

 greatly neglected, but many 

 large and remarkable forms 

 some of brilliant colours 

 have been brought from 

 there, so that we are justified 

 in believing that Insects of 

 this family will prove to be 

 very numerous. There are 

 but few apterous Braconidae. 

 Both sexes of Chasmodon 

 apterus are destitute of wings ; 

 the females of one species of 

 Spathius, and also those of 

 Pambolus and Chasmodon are 

 apterous ; in a small number 

 of species of various genera 

 the wings are so minute as 

 to be incapable of serving as 

 organs of flight. In the 

 genus Alloea the wings of 

 the male are shorter than 

 those of the female. 



Fam. VI. Stephanidae. 



FIQ. 369. Stenophasmus nificeps, female. 

 Aru Islands. (After Westwood.) 



Antennae composed of many (thirty to seventy} joints ; hind body 

 attached to the lower and posterior part of the median dorsal 



1 A monograph of the British Braconidae was commenced by the Rev. T. A. 

 Marshall in 1885, and is still in progress, in the Transactions of the Entomological 

 Society of London ; cf. op. cit. 1885, 1887, 1889, 1891, 1894. 



VOL. V 2 



