ioo ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



West Lothian on April 4, 1903. I handed the pupa to Mr. 

 James Waterston, under whose care the perfect insect was 

 hatched out. Again, on September 15, 1905, at Cambo in 

 East Fife, I took two pupae from nests of O. nmscornm, also 

 containing fragments of the Obisium. These hatched out in 

 the following spring, and proved to be male and female. 

 The female appeared first, on February 19, 1906, and the 

 male on February 26. In each case the little creatures 

 moved actively about on the day on which they were hatched, 

 and were on the following day found dead. The time of 

 hatching of these Ichneumons corresponds with the time at 

 which O. muscorum is retiring into her nest for reproductive 

 purposes. On February 14, 1907, near Dumbarton, I 

 opened two nests containing the remains of Obisium 

 muscormn and Ichneumon pupae ; from one pupa the fly had 

 already emerged, and the other pupa was unfortunately 

 wasted in my handling of it And again, on August 9, 

 1 907, at the same spot where I watched an Ichneumon sting 

 a Spider's egg-mass, I opened an Obisium's nest containing 

 the remains of the creature, and an empty Ichneumon 

 pupa. 



The perfect insects that emerged from the pupae obtained 

 on April 4, 1903, and on September 15, 1905, were forwarded 

 to Mr. Claude Morley, who identified them as Aptesis 

 stenoptera, Marsh, and who, in his work on " British 

 Ichneumons" (ii. 60-61), has created a new genus for 

 their reception, Obisiphaga stenoptera. It would appear 

 from my meagre observations that the parasites have a 

 double period of appearing, and the probability is that at 

 both periods they seek out reproducing females 



Chthonius rayi is also preyed upon by an Ichneumon, 

 and apparently under similar circumstances, though my 

 observations here are exceptionally meagre. On September 

 19, 1903, near Aberdour, Fife, I took an Ichneumon pupa 

 from a nest of this False-scorpion, in which also the remains 

 of the host were present. The Ichneumon was forwarded to 

 Mr. Morley, and identified by him (ii. 213) as Pezomachns 



impotens, Forst. 



(To be continued.'] 



