110 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



length of the ahdomen, in which he is followed by Wesmael and 

 Ruthe, but Marshall says it may be either one-third or three- 

 quarters the length of the abdomen. Such a wide variation can 

 scarcely be possible in a single species, and for a time I imagined 

 a printer's error might be responsible for the difference, and thiit 

 "one-third" should be "two-thirds"; Intely, however, I have 

 seen a number of specimens, probably from Cameron's collection, 

 all labelled "ill. suhcompletus " in Marshall's writing, and in these 

 the terebra is scarcely one-third the length of the abdomen. It 

 is difficult to believe that they can be the true subconiphtns of 

 Nees, and, were it not that they have the stigma concolorous and 

 not pale at the base, they might easily be taken for sticticiis, 

 Euthe. 



Of this form with a short terebra I took a pair in the New 

 Forest at angelica bloom in early August, 1916, and swept several 

 from low herbage on chalk hills ' near Cambridge in July and 

 August, 1917. 



Globatus* 



A common species with the wings varying from dusky to 

 almost pure hyaline. In all the female siiecimens I have seen 

 the terebra has been rather less than half as long as the 

 abdomen. Marshall considered it to be always a solitary 

 parasite but Ruthe speaks of it as gregarious. I have obtained 

 a brood of fourteen from a New Forest larva of Vanessa atalanta, 

 and have also a brood from the same host, taken at Farnham 

 by Coltbrup. Harwood has frequently bred it as a solitary 

 parasite from young larvse of F. atalanta at Colchester, and has 

 also reared broods from the full-fed caterpillar of that butterfly, 

 Morley also records it from the same host. I have carefully 

 compared the solitary parasites with others from broods and 

 can detect no difference excepting that the former are rather 

 larger. Cocoons white and somewhat woolly ; the loose outer 

 cover is easily removed which leaves a thin, smooth, and 

 slightly glossy inner cocoon, this may account for the dis- 

 crepancies between the descriptions of various authors. 



Tibialis, Nees.f 



Very variable, both in size and coloration. Marshall doubted 

 if it could be distinct from globatus, and certainly the principal 

 difference appears to be merely in the colour of the legs ; I must 

 admit that I have never met with any of the intermediate forms 

 he mentions, though, at first sight, M. crassicornis might be 

 taken for a light tibialis or dark globatui^, it is, however, easily 

 distinguished by the antennse. Haliday treated some of the 

 varieties as separate species, viz. messorius, meridianus, and 

 luctuosus, and it seems to me still open to question that he 



* 'Mon.,' i, p. 163. 

 t 'Mon.,' i, p. 168. 



