306 THE entomologist's record. 



vol. ix., p. 205) vertical ribs, with from 36-40 very fine hori- 

 zontal ones, crossing the hollows between the vertical ribs and 

 passing over the latter ; the edges are very shiny. The apex is 

 slightly domed, although looking quite fiat when viewed from 

 above, and forming a circular yellow apical point, the upright 

 ribs ending on the edge of this yellow area, although when looked at 

 sideways they appear to be gradually lost in the general surface. 

 [Description made under a two-thirds lens, used as a hand lens, April 

 10th, 1898, from an egg laid April 6th, 1898, at Cannes] . 



Cliinohas jutta. — Single egg laid on the upper side of a pine-needle. 

 Somewhat spherical in shape, but rather narrower at the top than at 

 the bottom, both poles, however, being somewhat flattened. Its 

 length is '7 mm. from base to apex. To the naked eye the egg is 

 seen to have a purplish tinge ; under a lens this appears to be due to 

 the embryo being partially visible through the shell, which, under a 

 lens, is seen to be shiny, probably transparent, and very delicately 

 ribbed transversely. The shell really reflects the light, and looks as if it 

 were a piece of silver filigree work. The most marked character of 

 the egg, however, consists of the longitudinal ribs, 16 in number, 

 which are bright, shining white in colour, reflecting the light so 

 strongly as to resemble wrought silver. Each rib consists of a fine, 

 raised, double thread, from which, on either side, irregular white 

 patches run down for a short distance the sloping sides of the 

 depression between two adjacent ribs. These lateral extensions 

 emerge alternately on either side, and hence form really a zigzag rather 

 than a central rib, carrying branches. The ribs themselves coalesce 

 just above the shoulder of the egg, and then form a coarse reticulation 

 of the same white shiny character as the longitudinal ribs themselves. 

 The reticulation is irregular, and gets very fine as it reaches the micro- 

 pyle, the edges of the polygons losing there, to a great extent, the 

 sheeny whiteness so characteristic of the coarser reticulation and longi- 

 tudinal ribs. The micropyle proper is very conspicuous, purplish in 

 colour, inclined to reddish centrally. It is slightly depressed, and 

 consists of a central stella, surrounded by the finer reticulation 

 already described. [Description made on July 1st, 1898, under a 

 two-thirds lens, from egg sent by Dr. Chapman, from Norway] . — 



J. W. TUTT. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



Parasites in wasps' nests. — lu searching the cells in the nests of 

 Vc^pa nd;/aris for Metoecm paradoxus, the curious wasp's nest beetle, at 

 Chiddiugfold, and which, l)y the way, I found in some numbers in all 

 the nests I examined, I came across some curious cocoons, hexagonal in 

 shape, and composed of a hard, brown substance. I bred from these 

 specimens of the ichneumon, Vhyrunomon [Anuinalon) resjxniini. The 

 cocoons occupy the bottom of the cell, and above them one finds, on 

 removing the silken cap with which the wasp larva has closed the cell, 

 what looks like a lump of transparent jelly. This, on being removed, 

 is seen to possess the shape of the head and thorax of the wasp. The 

 larva of the ichneumon must therefore remain in the body of the wasp 

 grub till it (the wasp grub) has changed to a pupa, it must then devour 

 the abdomen and make its cocoon in its place. Of other parasites I 



