CONTRIBUTIONS TO OUR KNOWLEDGE OF BRITISH BRACONID^. 107 



with such dissimilar insects as M. niiniitus and M. alvearius ; 

 apparently Thomson did not know tibialis, globatus, siibcompletus, 

 etc. There can be little doubt that all the species are parasites 

 of lepidoptera, the records of Eeinhard and Eatzeburg of Bombus 

 terrestris and Nematus septemtreonalis as hosts never having been 

 confirmed. 



I have been very fortunate in that Mr. B. S. Harwood has 

 sent me for examination many specimens now in his possession 

 which formerly belonged to E. A. Fitch ; among these 1 have 

 been much interested to find several of Mnrshall's types, bearing 

 labels in his writing, together with many other specimens from 

 Peter Cameron's collection with similar labels. Mr. Claude 

 Morley has very kindly compared one of these labels with others 

 in his own collection, and tells me there can be no doubt as to 

 the handwriting being that of Marshall. How Cameron's insects 

 came to be in Fitch's store-boxes I do not know, though, of 

 course, it is jjossible that the latter purchased them ; however, 

 they were never embodied in the Fitch collection which is now 

 in the Essex Museum at Stratford. 



Alvearius, Fab.* 

 A small species, bright testaceous in colour, preying gre- 

 gariously on larvae of geometrce. The cocoons are constructed in 

 a similar manner to those of Apanteles fratermis — namely, in a 

 regular, honeycomb-like mass attached to a twig (Fig. 7). Big- 

 nell reared a brood of seventy, and I have in my collection one of 

 seventy-nine, the latter obtained from a larva of Heinerophila abrup- 

 taria at Canonbury, London, N., by W. G. Pether. When the size 

 of the liost is considered, it seems marvellous how so many ])ara- 

 site larvae can accommodate themselves within its body. I have 

 seen a brood obtained from a larva of Boarmia gemmaria, taken 

 at Kavenscourt Park, W., and Colthrup has found the cocoons 

 on ivy at East Dulwich. Marshall records it from B. gemmnria 

 and Rainia luteolata, Bignell fi"om B. repandata. I may mention 

 that I have reared very considerable numbers of the larvae of 

 these lepidojitera in the New Forest without meeting with the 

 parasite. 



Minutas, Piein.f 



The smallest species in the genus, expai:!ding 5 mm. at the 

 most. In many specimens the second cubital cell is quite open 

 outwardly as in Apanteles, but in others a distinct trace of the 

 closing nervure is visible. 



Described by Pieinhard from two specimens, and first bred 

 by Bignell who raised a brood of thirty from a larva of Cleora gla- 

 braria. It has since been proved to be a common parasite of 



* 'Fab. E.S. Suppl.,'232. 



t ' Berl. eot. Zeil.,' 1880, p. 357. 



