32 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. {Ephialtes. 



The most complete account we have of the habits of this genus is com- 

 prised in Thomas Marsham's " Observations on the Oeconomy of the 

 Ichneumon Manifcsiator, Linn." (Trans. Linn. Soc. iii. [1797] pp. 23-29 

 et figg.) 'I'he affixed figures, however, certainly appear to agree ver)- 

 much better with Ephialtes carhonarius than the species indicated, and none 

 of them are more than 17 mm. in length. He says that he first observed the 

 insect, of which the male was unknown to him, sitting on an old post in 

 Kensington (}ardens on 9th June, 1787. It moves rapidly, carrying its 

 antennae bent in the form of an arch and feeling with them with a strong 

 vibratory motion till it finds the burrow of some insect and then thrusts 

 them in to their base. Rev. William Kirby, quoting this, says (Mon. 

 Apum Ang. i. 186) "Li this instance, the antennae appear to have been the 

 instrument which informed the little animal both where the holes were 

 that she was in search of, and also whether the larva, to which the Author 

 of Nature had instructed her to commit her eggs, was in them " (cf. also 

 Kirby and Spence, 7th ed. 201). ^Marsham continues that the insect 

 remains at least a minute in this position ; withdraws her antennae ; walks to 

 exactly the opposite side of the same hole and again thrusts them in. Re- 

 mains nearly as long on this side of the hole; withdraws them; alters its 

 position ; inserts them a third time and again withdraws them. Reverses 

 its position, retracts abdomen over head and thorax and projects its spicula 

 into the burrow. Its abdomen is then brought into a perpendicular posi- 

 tion with the two valvulae standing directly upright. Thus it remains 

 nearly two minutes; reverses and applies its antennae to the hole for 

 nearly as long as before, and a second and a third time inserts spicula. 

 It was then frightened away. 



On the 1 6th of the same month many were at work; they appeared to 

 pierce solid wood with their spicula, to half its length, and constantly 

 passed it down the abdomen between the hind femora, which steadied it. 

 It was, however, really inserted into the hole through fine white sand, 

 which closed the burrows of Apis maxillosa. This insect is now known 

 as Chelostoma florisoinne, L., and of it Kirby \\rites " In paxillis nidificat 

 et lignis siccis Ichneumonibus manifesiaiori , jaculaiori et fi mora fori K, ob- 

 noxia." (Mon. Apum Ang. ii. 251 ; cf. also INIorl. Ichn.- Brit. i. 28). Mar- 

 sham continues that the ichneumon's whole body and hind legs are thrust 

 into the hole, leaving exposed only its head, wings, anterior legs and 

 apices of the valvulae. In October he saw another female on a post at 

 Lessness Heath, near Erith, in Kent; it had its spicula fixed and, after 

 waiting a considerable time, he forced it to withdraw it. He noticed the 

 same species at work annually; and on 23rd July, 1791, saw one standing 

 directly over a burrow of Apis ?}iaxillosa, with the terebra in the burrow 

 and its hind femora steadying the abdomen. It frequently withdrew its 

 terebra a quarter or three-eighths of an inch and then plunged it in again 

 with great force, just before which effort the apex ot the abdomen under- 

 went a pulsatory mo\ement, perhaps caused by the passage of the eggs. 

 He observed that if the wind blows so strongly as to render the insect's 

 position insecure through its action upon the ciliated valvulae during ovi- 

 position, these are brought forward between the legs and there held in 

 safety. ^Marsham was evidently unacquainted with Reaumur's earlier 

 Memoirs on the same subject or he would have remembered that the 

 latter also represents his specimens thrusting their ovipositors through 

 circular patches of dried clay, used to stop up the entrance hole of their 

 burrows. 



