'308 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



chista serricornis, and Pterophorus 'paludum. — 0. P. Cambridge; 

 Bloxworth, October 5, 1887. 



SiREX JUVENCUS AT Oldham. — For the information of Mr. 

 V. Gunther (Entom. 233), I may say that I have in my collection 

 a pair of the above species, captured last July by my son, in one 

 of our modern cotton mills. — J. T. Eodgers; Oldham, Sept. 1887. 



The Abundance of Ichneumonid^ in 1887.— I can fully 

 corroborate Mr. E. R. Bankes' experience (Entom. 285) as to the 

 immense quantity of ichneumons which have appeared in our 

 breeding-cages this summer instead of moths, as far as my own 

 are concerned ; but the last sentence, referring specially to the 

 phenomenal appearance of the Pieridae this season, does not 

 seem like being borne out here. Mr. Bankes says, " It is surely 

 not to be expected that our native stock of ichneumons would be 

 able to cope with the hosts of larvse resulting from such an 

 exceptional visitation." From this I suppose Mr. Bankes to 

 mean that our normal numbers of Ichneumonidse would not at 

 once be able to cope with the progeny of the probably immi- 

 grating parents ; but how soon Ichneumonidse adapt themselves 

 to a changed order of things the following will show : — For the 

 sake of amusement, I have tried to find out what probability 

 there is of a numerous brood of P. brassica next spring. I 

 collected about 200 larvae of this species from a fence opposite 

 Westcombe Park railway-station, taking only those that left the 

 food-plant for the purpose of pupation, carefully looked after 

 them, and as a result I have only three perfectly-formed pupge 

 and two crippled in the change, all the rest having produced the 

 characteristic and well-known yellow Microgaster cocoons. 

 Three out of quite 200 do not point to any special abundance 

 next year, and if we come to consider the millions of extra 

 Ichneumonidee developed, owing to the extreme abundance of 

 tlieir hosts this autumn, the progeny of our early imagines will 

 not have much chance, and look like having a very lively time of 

 it if they are to survive at all. In the * Substitute,' 1856 — 57, 

 p. 41,1 notice there is a communication very similar to the above, 

 by Mr. C. G. Barrett. He says, " Last autumn (1855j the larvae 

 of Pleris hrassiccs abounded in Shropshire to such an extent that 

 the broccoli were almost destroyed, and the savoys and borecole 

 completely reduced to skeletons, and even the turnips were 



