CONTRIBUTIONS TO OUR KNOWLEDGE OF BRITISH BRACONIDAE. 229 
Pieris, particularly those of P. brassice, and by so doing helps 
to keep a serious pest in check. Unfortunately for the 
gardener, the larve of P. brassice do not, as a rule, succumb to 
the attacks of the parasite until they are fully grown, by which 
time they have consumed a large amount of cabbage. 
In the autumn of 1914, throughout the New Forest district, 
plants of the cabbage family suffered greatly from the caterpillar, 
cauliflower plants in particular, so much so that in many gardens 
nothing was left but the dwarfed cauliflower surrounded by a 
chevauxc de frise composed of midribs of the leaves. Some 
50 per cent. of the caterpillars fell victims to the Apanteles, and 
the yellow cocoons of the parasites could be found in numbers 
affixed to garden walls, on fences, under copings, and many even 
in houses. On more than one occasion I noticed birds— 
sparrows, robins, and tomtits—apparently tearing the cocoons 
from the walls and devouring them. By Christmas practically 
the whole of those constructed in exposed positions had disap- 
peared. Occasionally the cocoons of the parasite may be found 
attached to the food plant. 
Both the summer and autumn broods of P. brassice are 
attacked, the parasites from the autumn brood passing the 
winter within their cocoons and emerging during the following 
May. ; 
Marshall, in his description,* gives the coxe as black; but 
- in most cases | have found the four anterior to be rufo-testaceous, 
and even the hind pair light beneath. Marshall also remarks 
that the cocoons are “irregularly piled together without a 
common covering.” This is sometimes so, though I have known 
a case in which the cocoons were constructed under a fairly stout 
web. 
Both Bignell+ and Morley { record the breeding of this 
species from Abraxas grossulariata, which cannot, 1 think, be a 
common occurrence. Fitch states§ that Bignell also bred it 
from a larva of Phigalia pedaria, though, according to Marshall, || 
this is an error. 
‘In June, 1908, some larve of P. brassice were sent to me 
from Yeovil, and on July 1st large numbers of the larve of the 
Apanteles emerged from some of them. Whilst watching this 
process I chanced to notice a small hymenopteron paying 
particular attention to an apparently healthy Pierid larva and 
seemingly ovipositing therein. I isolated the larva and its 
tormentor and found that the oviposition still continued. Two 
days later the usual batch of Apanteles larve left the caterpillar 
* ‘Trans. Entom. Soc.,’ 1885, p. 176. 
+ ‘Trans. Dev. Ass.,’ xxxili, p. 657. 
{ ‘Entom.,’ xxxix, p. 100. 
§ ‘ Entom.,’ xvii, p. 68. 
| ‘Trans. Entom. Soc.,’ 1885, p. 176. 
