THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



331 



and now, n weeks after its capture, it remains, wings, antennae and all, in 

 as nice a condition for spreading as you could wish, — but it won't stay 

 spread ! 



NOTE ON B.EUS. 



BY W. HAGUE HARRINGTON, OTTAWA. 



About ten years ago, in sifting swamp mosses for Coleoptera, I met 

 with certain active little insects which, despite their wingless form and 

 almost microscopic size, were recognized as members of the order 

 Hymenoptera. Some of the individuals so captured were afterwards 

 described by Ashmead, in his Monograph of North American 

 Proctotrypidaa, as Bceus minutus and B. piceus. Subsequently, B. 

 americanus, Howard, and B. niger, Ashmead, were also discovered at 

 Ottawa. My solitary example of the former species was found sluggishly 

 crawling on the under surface of a stone in the chilly temperature of early 

 spring, and one example of B. niger was taken with a sweeping-net at the 

 end of September. With these two exceptions, all my specimens of the 

 genus were taken from moss collected at the beginning of winter. All 

 were females, as might be expected, for it is the females only of bees and 

 wasps, and probably of all hymenoptera hibernating in the imago condition, 

 that survive the winter in these northern lands. 



It was, therefore, with much pleasure that, in examining a tube in 

 which a spider's cocoon had been placed, I found that a number of 

 minute creatures had emerged, which required only a glance to show that 

 they belonged to Bceus. The cocoon was a small spherical one, of mottled 

 gray colour, about three millimeters in diameter, and was probably 

 constructed by a member of the Therediidae. It was collected toward the 

 end of June, but, unfortunately, the tube was laid aside unlabeled, and the 

 time of emergence of the parasites is not known. Many of the spiders had 

 also hatched, and had spun many delicate lines throughout the tube before 

 perishing. 



The parasites had apparently emerged later, as the majority of them 

 had been entangled in the spiders' threads. They were twenty-four in 

 number, and, to my delight, four were males, for individuals of which sex 

 my searches had hitherto been in vain. Probably if they had not appeared 

 with the females I should have had considerable difficulty in placing them. 



