64 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



she bent her ovipositor, and plunged it into the 

 effg. She performed the same operation upon many 

 other eggs, which he carefully put under cover; and 

 in about tliree weeks had from them a brood of flies 

 of the same species with the one whose remarkable 

 j)roceedii!gs he had watchetl*. 



A writer in the Magazine of Natural History 

 (Jan. 1830) gives an account of a numerous brood 

 of a very minute species of ichneumon, supposed to be 

 an egg parasite {Platyga.'iter oviilorvm? Stephens), 

 which was produced from the caterpillars of the larae 

 white cabbage-butterfly (Poniia Brassicce). Having 

 enclosed a number of these in a wire cage, five or 

 six of them soon left off feeding, and crawled about 

 the cage. " June 30," he ])roceeds, " I found them 

 resting on large clusters of minute cocoons of an 

 ovate form, tlie largest not exceeding two lines in 

 length, and about the thickness of a caraway-seed. 

 Each was enveloped with a fine yellow silk, re- 

 sembling that of the common silkworm {Bombyx 

 Mori). On these clusters the caterpillars remained 

 the whole day without moving. Fresh leaves were 

 given to the rest ; but in the course of the day 

 they all left off feeding, crawled about the cage, 

 but underwent no other change. Early next day, 

 I found they had, with the exception of two or 

 three, all ejected the parasitical progeny they had 

 been impregnated with ; and, like the preceding 

 caterpillars, continued resting on the clusters they 

 liad formed : the remaining three followed the ex- 

 ample of the others ; and the last operation of these 

 devoted caterpillars was to envelope each cluster in 

 a veil formed of the most delicate web f." Jt is 

 not a little interesting to remark, that this circum- 

 stance corroborates the statement before given from 



• lluaumur, Mem. vol. vi, p. 297. 

 f Loutlon's Mag. Nat. Hist. iii. 51. 



