ENTOMOLOGY HYMENOPTERA. 363 



some sort of gum. (The Museum of Berlin has similar webs, sent over by 

 Beske, which, almost without exception, had the larvae still inside them.) 

 Two new species of Hylotoma, from Brazil, Schizocerus nasicornis and 

 ochrostigma, Curtis, are also described. (Ibid. 254-.) 



ICHNETJMONIDES. Ratzeburg (Ichn. Forstins.) has traced for us the 

 development of some ichneumon-flies. 1. Atiomalon circumflexum, a parasite 

 of Bombyx pini. The larva, which full-grown is nearly an inch long, passes 

 through several stages of growth. In the first, when less than a line long, 

 it has no trace of tracheae, the horny head with only one pair of stout jaws, 

 a long pointed appendage at the hinder end. Thus it is found inside cater- 

 pillars of G-8 lines length, without a case. In the second stage the main 

 trunk of the tracheaj with insulated embranchments appears, rudiments of 

 feelers without joints, the tail-piece contracted, from being half, to a quarter 

 the length of the body ; as before, without a case. In the third stage, the 

 larva is enveloped in a delicate milk-white membrane, in which no trace of 

 vessels and orifices can be discovered, even with glasses of the highest mag- 

 nifying power. Notwithstanding, the author is inclined to regard it as a 

 skin cast off and inflated, although in that case the spiracles as well as the 

 parts of the mouth coidd not fail to be distinguished. It is, therefore, much 

 more probable that this bag is analogous to the cyst of Entozoa, consisting 

 like it of an unorganized membrane, deposited about the parasite from the 

 creature it inhabits. The larva, now 4-5'" long, has the tracheae perfectly 

 branched, the jaws are accompanied by an under pair, and a lip with jointed 

 palps, and there are jointed feelers. The tail-piece is now quite short 

 and bent like a reaping-hook. In the fourth stage the tail is gone, the 

 head has lost its horny consistence, and the parts of the mouth have 

 reverted to the abortive condition which is observed in the larvae of the 

 other Ichneumouida;. At the end of this period the larva undergoes its 

 transformation within a delicate dry case inside the caterpillar. He calcu- 

 lates the period of development from first to last at three months. 2. 

 Bancfnts compressus, F. The pupa-cases are found commonly where Noc- 

 tua piniperda abounds, under moss, along with the chrysalids of the 

 moth. The larva inside them is 6-7 inches long, dark yellow, with the parts 

 of the mouth formed as usual in this family. Frequently also the white 

 grubs of an ichneumon-fly were found inside these cases, doubtless those of 

 some parasite of the Banchus, which Ilatzeburg did not succeed in rearing. 

 3. Ichneumon. The larvae infest Lepidoptera in particular, both as cater- 

 pillars and as chrysalids. That of /. pisorhts, which is found in the cater- 

 pillars of Bombyces, is U inch long, very thick, flabby, and puckered, of a 

 yellowish white, the head pretty large, the parts of the mouth very imper- 

 fectly developed, adapted for suction only. 4. Phyyadeuon ptervnorum, 

 Havt . The larva sucks, from the outside, the false caterpillar of Lophyrus 



