CONTRIBUTIONS TO OUR KNOWLEDGE OF BRITISH BRACONID^. Ill 



was not correct in so doing ; a study of the genetalia is badly 

 needed here. 



Fairly common though rarely bred, Morley tells us it is 

 "very common" with him. Harwood has taken several at 

 Colchester and I have found it near Cambridge, though never 

 in the New Forest. The only cocoon I have seen accompanies 

 a continental specimen in Morley's collection, it is white, rather 

 woolly and similar to that of M. globatus. Bignell gives the 

 cocoon as " white, papyraceous," which agrees better with that 

 of the next species. 



Crassicornis, Ruthe.* 



This is the M. spmolce of Haliday but not of Nees and 

 Wesmael. There is no doubt it has frequently been confused 

 with tibialis to which it bears a great resemblance, though a 

 glance at the antenna will at once determine its distinction, the 

 three penultimate joints being quite as broad as long, which is 

 not so in tibialis and globatus. 



A common solitary parasite of larvfe of Eupethecia denotata 

 {campa)ndata). In September, 1912. Major Eobertson gave me 

 several "stung" larvae of this lepidopterou, taken by himself 

 at Limpley Stoke, Bath ; from these emerged microgaster larvse 

 which remained within their cocoons during the winter, the 

 imagines emerging the following May (5th to 11th). Harwood 

 has eight females bred from the same host taken at Newbury, 

 and also possesses two females and one male obtained many 

 years ago at Glenlyon by Cameron ; these three insects are no 

 doubt some of the specimens metioned by Marshall (' Trans. 

 Entom. Soc.,' 1885, p. 259), unfortunately, they have suffered 

 greatly from the attacks of mites. 



Cocoon white, thin, smooth, transparent, with a medial band 

 of a denser texture. 



(To be continued.) 



NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



Food-plant op the Larva of Hyria muricata.^ — In a previous 

 number of the ' Entomologist ' (vol. xlviii, p. 197) I recorded the fact 

 that the food-plant of the larva of Hyria auroraria in Great Britain 

 was probably the Marsh Cinquefoil {Comarum palustre). Mr. W. 

 Holland has since confirmed this supposition by finding larvae of this 

 moth in Suffolk in May, 1917, feeding on Comarum palustre, which 

 he reared to maturity. As Mr. Holland points out, H. auroraria is 

 very local on the bogs where it is found, a fact explained by the 

 sparse distribution of the food-plant in the areas where it grows. — 

 N. Charles Rothschild ; Arundel House, Kensington Palace 

 Gardens West, London, March 9th, 1918. 



* 'Bed. Ent. Zeit.,' 1860, p. 124. 



