CONTRIBITTFONS TO OUR KNOWLKDGR OF BRITISH RRACONID.'E. 195 



in this insect is more triangular, hence the specific name. The 

 stigma is j)ale fuscous with the nervures paler, indeed, the 

 latter are sometimes quite colourless. All the specimens I 

 have seen expand from 5^ to G mm. The cocoons are well 

 described by Wesmael as pale-yellow, and " reunies en un petit 

 jxiquet'' (PI. II, fig. 4). 



In the New Forest these compact parcels of cocoons may 

 often be found in June attached to Genista anglica and to furze, 

 the species being commonly parasitic on larvae of Pseudoptera 

 jyrmnata. Major Robertson has reared it from the same host 

 taken at Chandler's Ford, and I imagine that it will be found 

 to be as common and generally distributed as is its host. The 

 broods usually consist of from ten to twenty individuals. 



A nearly related and, I believe, undescribed insect which 

 forms a pure white cocoon, and which I have obtained as a 

 solitary parasite from a larva of Nohi cucahitella, appears to 

 have been confused witb this species (see Marshall, ' Trans. 

 Entom. Soc.,' 1885, p. 215). Bignell gives the cocoons as 

 " white, thick, grt^garious," wbich also points to confusion. 



A. formosiis, Wesm.* 



Is rendered specially interesting by its unique cocoon, first 

 discovered by Jjignell, who figured and described it in ' Trans. 

 Devon Assoc. Sci., Lit., and Art,' 1901, xxxii, p. 661. Judging 

 from Bignell's remarks the insect should be a fairly common 

 parasite of the larvae of Oitrapteryx samhucaria. In the New 

 Forest the Swallow-tail Moth is by no means plentiful though 

 every spring a few of the larvae may be beaten from honeysuckle 

 or ivy. For quite ten seasons past I have reared all I could 

 obtain with the idea of breeding this parasite but without 

 success. I have also persuaded friends to send me considerable 

 numbers of the caterpillars from at least six different localities 

 in the country with no better result ; indeed, I have never 

 obtained a hymenopterous parasite of any sort from 0. 

 samhucaria. 



As Marshall remarks, the cocoon somewhat resembles the 

 pedicellate egg of a Chrysopa. It also bears a likeness to the 

 pensile cocoon of a Meteorid, and one would naturally suppose 

 that it was constructed in a similar manner, namely, by the 

 maker first suspending itself by strands of silk from a leaf or 

 twig and then weaving its cocoon. Bignell, however, assures us 

 that it is not so, and states that the larva, after constructing a 

 base, erects a peduncle, at the top of which the cocoon is fixed. 



A. parallelus, sp. nov. 



Black ; palpi pale ; belly at base testaceous ; fore and middle 

 femora, tibiae and tarsi entirely testaceous ; hind femora and tibiae 

 * 'Nouv. Mem. Ac. Brux.,' 18.S7, p. 60. 



