108 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



this lepidopteron, and probably its range is co-extensive with 

 that of its host. 



We have here another instance where the gregarious cocoons 

 take a honeycomb formation, and Marshall tells us that the 

 " comb " is similar in shape to that of M. alvearius, but to me 

 this seems scarcely correct, for in all the cases I have noticed 

 the cake of cocoons has been almost circular in shape, and, 

 instead of being firmly fastened to a twig, very loosely attached 

 to the strands of the hosts' food plant Usnea barhata (Fig. 4). 

 I have reared many broods in the New Forest, varying from 

 nine to twenty-two individuals, all from larvae of C. glahraria, 

 and have a brood from North Somerset obtained from the same 

 host. The transformation from full-fed larva to imago usually 

 occupies fourteen days or so, the insects emerging from their 

 cocoons in May or early June. 



Connexus, Nees.* 



By far the commonest species in the genus, large broods 

 being constantly obtained from larvae of Porthesia similis, whose 

 urticating hairs are certainly no protection against attack by 

 Braconidce ; also recorded by Morley from Bomhyx veustrin. 

 Cocoons white with a satiny sheen, constructed within the cocoon 

 of the host ; the parasite larvse do not evacuate the host until 

 the latter is apparently on the point of pupating. Care must be 

 taken in handling these cocoons, for the brittle hairs of the host 

 ■which adhere to them are liable to be transferred to the fingers, 

 and so accidentally to the eyes or lips, causing considerable 

 irritation if not actual pain. Colthrup has sent me numerous 

 broods from Eastbourne and Abbots Wood, and I have found 

 the species particularly plentiful on the Gog Magog Hills near 

 Cambridge, quite half the larvae of P. similis taken by me in 

 that locality having produced the parasite ; the species has 

 never occurred to me in the New Forest. Usually the broods 

 consist of some twenty individuals ; the largest I have numbers 

 twenty-five, the smallest sixteen. From thirty to thirty-seven 

 days is the period passed within the cocoon. All the insects in 

 a brood do not emerge at the same time ; indeed, I have known 

 more than a week to elapse between the emergence of the first 

 and the last. Hyperparasites are frequently obtained from the 

 cocoons ; this I have frequently noticed in the Abbots Wood 

 examples ; one large batch of cocoons from that neighbourhood, 

 given to me by Colthrup, produced only a single M. connexus, 

 the places of the others having been taken by hyperparasites ; 

 while quite half the cocoons of another brood yielded, in the 

 following May, almost eleven months after the construction of 



* ' Mon.,' i, p. 174. 



