CABBAGE. LEAVES CABBAGE MOTH. 173 



be darts backwards and wriggles about so suddenly and spitefully, 

 it will be an interesting topic for some future observer to notice 

 by what artifice his mortal foe induces him to remain quiet or is 

 able to cling to him long enough to puncture and drop an egg 

 within his skin. The knowledge and skill which these Ichneumon 

 and other parasitic Hymenopters often show in their proceedings 

 is truly wonderful. Every person will recollect the larva of the 

 Isabella tiger-moth (Jlrctia Isabella) — the large caterpillar with 

 stiff even-shorn hairs of a tan color and black at each end of his 

 body, which crawls about our yards and often enters our dwell- 

 ings — and will probably have observed the fact that if when 

 crawling he is rudely touched he suddenly stops and doubles him- 

 self together for a moment, and then straightens himself again 

 and resumes his journey. The long stiff hairs with which he is 

 protected much like a porcupine, we should think would render 

 it impossible for an insect enemy to place an egg anywhere upon 

 his skin. Mr. P. Reid tells me he once saw one of these cater- 

 pillars crawling with a hurried eager step across a dusty road, 

 with an Ichneumon fly pursuing him, striving to cling upon his 

 back, but falling off in consequence of the rapid motion of the 

 caterpillar. The fly finding itself frustrated in its every effort, 

 next, as if humming to itself the refrain " Twill never do to give 

 it lip so," flew a few feet forward of the caterpillar, and turning, 

 darted back with all its energy, hitting the caterpillar square in 

 his face. The caterpillar thus roughly assailed suddenly stopped 

 ■and bent himself together in his acustomed manner, and in an 

 instant the fly, alighting upon his back, appeared to fix an egg at 

 the margin of one of the breathing pores, which had become fairly 

 exposed by the caterpillar doubling his body thus together. In a 

 moment the caterpillar was recovered from his shock and was 

 crawling rapidly forward again, when the fly struck him a second 

 time in the same way, and thus he was stopped and had an egg 

 deposited upon his side three times, before he reached the tall 

 grass beside the highway, in which he was secure from further 

 molestation. And it is probable that by some artifice equally 

 curious and remarkable, the parasite of the Cabbage moth is able 

 to drop an egg into the skin of his irritable, brisk motioned 

 victim. 



