ATTEMPTED DIVISION OF BRITISH INSECTS. 407 



hair or body of its prey, or to the trees and leaves in the neigh- 

 bourhood, from which it is occasionally seen suspended by a 

 silken thread ; more than thirty of these parasites sometimes feed 

 within the body of a single caterpillar of the cabbage butterfly, 

 which may be seen in numbers glued to palings, in the autumn, 

 by these parasites, and surrounded by their little yellow cocoons, 

 giving to the uninstructed the idea of a caterpillar sitting on its 

 eggs. Imago, with the antennas ten- to twenty -join ted ; man- 

 dibles short, generally bifid ; maxilla? obtuse, feelers six-jointed, 

 elongate; labium short; ligula obtuse and entire; feelers four- 

 jointed ; ocelli three ; fore-wings with fewer nervures than the 

 following Order ; hind-wings with still less ; podeon slender and 

 short; oviduct with two protecting appendages. Inhabits grass, 

 shrubs, &c. throughout the summer ; often flies in a vaulting 

 company, like gnats in the sunshine ; runs slowly. Bassus, Rogas, 

 Alysia, Bracon, Microgaster, Microdus, Sigalphus, Aphidius. 



Natural Order. — Ichneumonites. 



Larva elongate, with the divisions of the segments clearly defined ; 

 an indentation frequently passes along the sides, above and below 

 the middle portion, which thus becomes raised : solitary ; inhabits 

 and devours the fleshy parts of other insects, while they are them- 

 selves yet alive and performing their usual functions; during the 

 whole of its parasitic career taking care to do no injury to those 

 parts on which the life of its prey depends. Pupa changes some- 

 times within the shell of the pupa of the Lepidopterous insects ; 

 sometimes in the ground, in a tough, close, leathery cocoon, spun 

 by the larva. Imago, with long filiform antennae composed of about 

 forty joints ; mandibles short, stout, acute, and bifid ; maxillae 

 dilated and obtuse, their feelers six-jointed, and often very long ; 

 labium short, its ligula short and bilobed, its feelers generally 

 four-jointed ; ocelli three ; fore- and hind-wings with numerous 

 nervures ; podeon always slender, seldom or never elongate ; 

 oviduct generally defended by a setaceous appendage on each 

 side, thus appearing to be triple : varies greatly in length. In- 

 habits vegetables of all kinds throughout the summer, the females 

 busily engaged in searching after Lepidopterous larvae in which 

 to deposit their eggs ; their wings and antennae are continually in 

 motion ; the males frequent umbellate flowers, and feed on pollen ; 

 the females not unfrequently eat small insects and larvae. Ich- 

 neumon, Anomalon, Ophion, Banchus, Pellastes, Alomya, Cryptus, 

 Pimp la , Xy lo nomas. 



