THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 187 



positively say that I saw them in the act of doing so. I send 

 you several specimens ; and if in the transit by post the 

 caterpillars may be displaced, I donbt not they will soon 

 resume their position, when left at liberty and rest. Should 

 the fact be either new or interesting, perhaps you will give it 

 a place in the 'Entomologist;" and will you kindly inform 

 me of the names, both of the caterpillar and of the insect to 

 which the eggs belong. — Thomas Bell; The JVakes, 

 Selborne, Alton, Hants, July 2(j, 1872. 



[The supposed eggs are the pupae of Microgaster alvearius, 

 a minute ichneuraonideous insect, so named from the 

 extreme similarity to a honey-comb of the compactly 

 agglutinated mass of pupaj : after a few days the perfect 

 ichneumons made their appearance ; most of them escaped, 

 and a few only have been preserved. It is rather singular that 

 every one of the larvae should have been thus attacked: not 

 one was found which had escaped the parasite ; and the 

 larvae found in connexion with the mass of parasites, in the 

 position Mr. Bell has indicated in the pencil-sketch given 

 opposite, were so shrivelled that I could not decide upon the 

 species. In this difficulty, — and seeing, moreover, that I was 

 unacquainted with any Lepidopteron feeding on Thuja 

 aurea — I sent two of them to Mr. Doubleday, who is unable 

 to help me. Mr. Buckler has also seen them, and suggests 

 they may be the larvae of Odontoptera bidentata, although he 

 finds no trace of the supplementary claspers which characterize 

 that species. The name of the larva must, therefore, stand 

 over for future investigation. It is possibly a species new 

 to this country, introduced with the beautiful Thuja, now so 

 great a favourite.] 



Captures during April, May, and June, 1872 : — E. versi- 

 color. March 16th and April 16lh and 18lh. Bred three 

 females from larvae reared from eggs. 



A. pictaria. March 27th, 28th and 30th. Bred three from 

 larvae, on blackthorn, in July, at Loughton. 



C. temeraria. April 15ih to May 5th. Bred thirteen 

 beautiful specimens from larvae, on blackthorn, at Loughton. 



N. pulveraria. April 22nd to 27th. Three very tine from 

 larvae, on hawthorn, at Loughton, in September. 



N. chaonia. April 22nd and 30th. Bred two, from larvae 

 obtained at Loughton in 1870. 



