1919.1 19 



Machimus atricapillus Fin, in Lfincntt/ure. — According' to Verrall in his 

 " British Flies," vol. v, p. 678, this species has not been taken further north 

 than Dolgelly. On the 8tli of August last I took a pair at Humphrey Head, 

 near Grange, which is about 100 miles further north. I have also taken 

 Echinomijia f/rossa L. several times on Holker M(jss iu the same neighbour- 

 hood. — Chris. A. Cheeiham, Farnley, Leeds : Dec. llth, 1918. 



NOTE ON APANTELE8 GLOMERATUS, A BEACONID PARASITE OF 

 THE LARVA OF PIERIS BBAS8ICAE. 



BT J. BRONTE GA.TEKBT, B.A., B.SC. 



Tlie endoparasitic entomophagous Hi/menojjtera have always at- 

 tracted the lively interest hoth of the systematist and the trained 

 microseopist. Except for the colonial instinct, these entoiuophagous 

 Hymenoptei'd exhibit other reactions and complicated instincts of a 

 truly wonderful nature (1). 



In this short note I have added a few more facts to a former 

 paper (2) on the subject, wherein I described the larval anatomy of 

 Microgaster, an allied form. 



The adult Apanteles glomeratus is a small Braconid fly some 

 three millimetres in body-length. It generally attacks young cater- 

 pillars of Fieris hrassicae, and lays inside their bodies some thirty to 

 sixty eggs, all of which hatch out, producing larvae with a peculiar 

 abdominal bulb or vesicle (2). These larvae grow up, eating the fat- 

 body of the host in later stages of their life. Finally they make their 

 exit from the body of their host, at a time when the latter is about full- 

 grown. This paper deals especially with the period when the Braconid 

 larvae are passing outwards. 



Some Facts with eegaed to the Ego a^^d 

 Ge>"eeal Development. 



The oogenesis of this parasite has been examined hy Hegner (3) 

 and more recently by myself. I do not intend to enter into the subject 

 here, but it may be explained that the ovum of this form is an elongate- 

 oval structure, having at its posterior pole a germ-cell determinant 

 (3, 1), which later becomes enclosed in the future germ-cells. In 

 oogenesis also it has been ascertained hy Hegner that ApanfeJes is like 

 Blochmann's ants and some other insects in. possessing, in addition to 

 the egg-nucleus, a large number of secondary nuclei, whose origin and 

 fate is still in doubt. They appear when the egg is half grown and dis- 

 appear before the eg^ is quite mature. Lately, Buchner (4) has 



