NOTES ON BRITISH BRACONID^. 149 



tapping it assiduously with their antennae at Hulver Bridge, in 

 Suffolk. 



12. punctiventris. — Apparently uncommon. Bignell has given 

 it me from Devon, and I have found it on reeds at Southwold late 

 in September, and at Tuddenham Fen on June 12th. 



13. atrator. — One female of this very distinct species was 

 running on my bedroom window here at 6 p.m. on August 31st, 

 1907. It is said to prey on moths, and not Cis boleti. 



15. ahdominator. — A male was swept by me at Queens' Bower, 

 Brockenhurst, in August, 1901. I also have a couple of females 

 taken at Felden, in Herts, by Piffard, and at Golspie, in Scotland, 

 on August 26th, 1900. 



17. melanostictus. — Not hitherto bred. On May 29th, 1899, 

 Haggart sent me its cocoon, which is nearly 6 mm. in length, 

 elongate-ovate, somewhat shining, transparent, pale piceous, 

 with darker reticulating strands, and exactly identical with that 

 of M. versicolor, from Galashiels ; he said it had emerged from 

 the pupa of Thera variata. A female had emerged on 11th of 

 the following month between midnight and 10 a.m., and had 

 entirely removed the smaller end of the cocoon, which does not 

 appear to be pendent. 



18. pulchricornis. — This common species occurred to me in 

 the Bentley Woods in 1894, and at Brockenhurst in May, 1895 ; 

 Beaumont has taken it at Oxshott in July, and Harting in August. 

 On May 23rd, 1900, a female emerged from its cocoon, which is 

 smaller, paler, and much narrower than that of the last species, 

 and has a " swing-rope " of 13 mm. This was sent me from 

 Eeigate by Prideaux on 11th inst., with the dead and shrivelled 

 host — a larva of " what I could, with fair certainty, identify as 

 Agrotis agathina, found on heather a week ago, and which de- 

 veloped the enclosed solitary cocoon. The larval host lived some 

 days after its extrusion, apparently in great discomfort — in- 

 cessantly writhing — but no further parasites were disclosed " 

 (R. M. P. in lit.). When it came to me the host-larva was no 

 longer than the Braconid's cocoon. Chapman also bred a female 

 at Locarno or Cannes in April, 1900 ; and Miss Chawner has 

 given me both sexes, bred in July at Burley, in the New Forest, 

 from " hazel-leaves." 



20. scutellator. — Both sexes given me by Piffard from Felden, 

 in Herts, and by Beaumont from Kilmore, in Ireland, in August. 

 I took a female on my study-window here in the middle of last 

 August. 



21. unicolor. — I have one male, probably referable to this 

 species, from the New Forest. 



23. versicolor. — On May 29th, 1899, Haggart sent me a cocoon 

 and the larva-host, whence it had emerged, found on heather at 

 Galashiels on 27th. This larva I sent to Barrett for determina- 

 tion, and he pronounced it, on June 5th, to be that of some 



