ENTOMOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE. 61 
falle”’—parasitic in the larva of a butterfly—that Signor Franchi 
had informed him that he had reared another from the larva of 
Papilio Machaon ; adding, in asupplementary note, that Signor G. 
B. Villa at Milan possessed a specimen of a Sirex, which he assured. 
him, ‘“‘era pure sortita dalla larva di un Papilio, sotto ai di lui 
occhie nel di lui gabinetto.” Upon these statements, the author 
proposes a fresh modification of the classification of the Hymen- 
optera, in order to make it accord with their supposed parasitic 
habits. 
Having entered into the question of the habits of this family at 
considerable length, in the 2nd volume of my Introduction to the 
Modern Classification of Insects,* where I have represented the 
various parts of the mouth of the Larva, I shall only observe that 
the numberless instances on record of species of this genus making 
their appearance out of the wooden flooring of newly-built houses,+ 
quite overturns the statements of their being parasitic in the 
bodies of the caterpillars of butterflies; whilst the structure of the 
mandibles of the larvee of Sirex, eminently fits them for gnawing 
through hard substances, and that the mandibles of Parasitic 
Hymenopterous larvee are entirely of a different construction. 
Comp. figures, 70, 3, 4, (vol. ii. p. 94), 72, 20, (p. 115), and 76 
15 (p. 140 of the 2nd volume of my work abovementioned). 
OSSERVAZIONI SOPRA I CARATTERI NATURALI, DI TRE FAMIGLIE D’ INSETTI 
IMENOTTERI ; cioé, le VESPARIE, le MASARIDE, e le CRistpIpE. Memoria del 
Marchese MAssiIMILIANO Spinola. Genova, 1843. 
Commencine with the axiom, that ‘i migliori caratteri entomo- 
logici sono somministrati dalle forme esterne, e che le migliori 
forme sono quelle che mettono in evidenza la miglior legge orga- 
nica,” the author has in this memoir entered into a profound 
revision of the physiological peculiarities of the chief hymeno- 
pterous groups, of which it is impossible to give an abstract ; but 
of which the summary is contained “nel quadro sinottico che 
segue ” :— 
* Vol. ii. p. 117 and seq. 
t The author gets over this difficulty by supposing that: they are ordinarily parasitic upon 
wood-boring larve of Coleoptera, and only occasionally so in Lepidopterous larve; but, in 
those parts of England where the Siricidee occur, we have not any xylophagous larve fitted 
for the Siricidze to exercise their parasitism upon. 
