316 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



New Species of Ichneumonid.e. — The following two new Ichneumons 

 have been described by Mr. G. C. Bignell, F.E.S., iu his address to the 

 members of the Plymouth Institution, and Devon and Cornwall Natural 

 History Society, October 12th, 1893 :— 



Piinpla brich/inanii, Bignell. Head black ; under side of scape of 

 antennae and palpi, stramiueus ; antenna?, upper side of thorax and 

 abdomen fuscous, mesothorax darkest ; under side, including coxfe, 

 legs, and scutellum, ochraceous ; scutellum and adjacent part of 

 mesothorax forming an oblong square patch ; hind tibire light fuscous, 

 with a ring near the base, and apex dark. Antennae 25-jointed ; 

 length, 3|- mm. ; aculea, 1 mm. Length of body, 5 mm. (excluding 

 aculea) ; expansion of wings, 9 mm. A parasite on spider, Drassiis 

 lapidicolens, Walckenaer. 



Praon absinthii, Bignell. Female : black ; mouth and greater part 

 of the abdomen, and terminal joints of tarsi, testaceous ; antennae, 

 third joint wholly, and fourth all but the extreme apex, pectus, legs, 

 apex of the upper side of first segment of abdomen and base of the 

 second, forming an oblong spot, ochraceous. Male : much darker 

 insect ; antennae and pectus black. Antenna of male with twenty-one 

 joints ; female, nineteen. Length, 3 mm. ; expansion of wings, 6 mm. 

 A parasite on Siphonuphora absinthii, Linne ; and as figured by Koch, 

 Fig. 272. 



Notes on the Cells of Eetinia resinana. — Being desirous of 

 learning any facts bearing on the secretion of wax by Lepidoptera, I 

 asked my friend Mr, Clark, of Hackney, to forward me some of the 

 curious cells formed by the larva of Fl. resinana, and he has most 

 obligingly complied with my request. These cells are reported to be 

 soft and wax-like in the earlier stages of formation, but in their mature 

 hardened condition they certainly give one the idea of being purely 

 resinous, that is, that they are the result of vegetable exudation, and 

 not of animal secretion. Still, future examination may prove that wax 

 really does enter into their composition. In connection with this 

 subject, the following interesting note occurs in an old work (Molina's 

 'Chili,' vol. i. p. 147): — "In Coquimbo in Chili, resin, either the 

 product of an insect or the consequence of an insect's biting ofi' the 

 buds of a particular species of Orii/anani, is collected in great quantities. 

 The insect in question is a small, smooth, red caterpillar, about half an 

 inch long, which changes into a yellowish moth, with black stripes upon 

 its wings (Phalana cerarla, Molina). Early in spring vast numbers of 

 the caterpillars collect on the branches of the Chlla, where they form 

 their cells of a kind of soft white wax or resin, in which they undergo their 

 transformations. This wax, which is at first very white, but becomes 

 yellow and finally brown, is collected in autumn by the inhabitants, 

 who boil it in water and make it up into little cakes for the market." 

 This passage is quoted by Kirby and Spence. — H. Guard Knaggs ; 

 Folkestone, October, 1894. 



Note on Bombyx trifolii. — Besides clover, larvae of Bombijx trlfulU, 

 in confinement, will eat walnut, oak, and whitethorn, the last being 

 perhaps the food on which they thrive best. It seems absolutely fatal 



