96 DESTEUCTIVE INSECTS OF VICTOKIA : 



caused them to curl up and wither. In this instance the 

 pests were fortunately attacked by a small parasitic wasp, 

 a dainty little fellow, with long and slender black 

 antenna?, slender-stalked body, fine gauzy wings, and 

 bright yellow legs, belonging to the small ichneumon 

 flies of the family Braconidce. 



It was evident that the wasps deposited their eggs 

 upon the back of the caterpillars when the latter were 

 very young, as before they were half-grown, the wasp 

 larva3 had eaten up its host, and spun a stout silken 

 cocoon covered with the skin of the caterpillar, and 

 attached to the nearest twig. 



Upon emerging from the egg the caterpillar is nearly 

 black (see on stem of Fig. I. of our plate, which has been 

 drawn from sjjecimens reared in the office museum), but 

 by the time they have grown a quarter of an inch in 

 length they begin to assume a brownish tint, chiefly from 

 a number of grey tubercles or warts appearing along the 

 sides of the body. 



They are now thickly clothed with long hairs, with 

 two singular reddish-coloured appendages projecting from 

 the back near the tail. (See Fig. L, on leaves of apple 

 tree.) When full grown, the caterpillar measures about 

 If inches in length, and is rather slender in shape, with 

 the legs and claspers reddish yellow. The head is dull 

 reddish brown, lightly covered with long greyish hairs, 

 with a slender tuft projecting from each shoulder beyond 

 the head, the tip of each of these long hairs forming a 

 swollen lance-shaped point. Along the centre of the 

 back from the centre of the first four abdominal seg- 

 ments there is a thick brush-like bunch of greyish brown 

 hairs, the thoracic segments in front of these tufts being 

 marked with yellow, and the whole of the upper surface 

 of the caterpillar is covered with long brownish hairs, 

 with patches of shorter grey hairs along the sides, a large 

 projecting plume being formed on either side towards 

 the tip of the abdomen. All these hairs are very finely 

 feathered, which gives the caterpillar a downy appearance. 



