322 



anyone who paid the smallest attention to the Trichiosoma would 

 be sure to notice them. But on the other hand some are very 

 small, and these again are said to be subject to the attacks of 

 other parasites. 



On the other side of the small box are a number of eggs, or 

 rather egg-shells, for they are now empty, of, I think, the Pale 

 Tussock Moth (Dasychira pudibunda), the caterpillar of which is 

 known as the Hop-Dog, and which must be classed among our 

 injurious insects. Now in each of these eggs a small Hymen- 

 opterous insect, a Teleas, belonging to the family Proctotrupidae, 

 has laid a single egg of its own. After a short time the enclosed 

 egg hatched, and the young larva found sufficient nourishment in 

 the contents of this one egg to grow to its full size, make its 

 cocoon, and soon after force its way out, a full grown Teleas. 



How very small this young parasite must be, you may judge 

 from the fact that the moth's egg, which contains all the food it 

 requires, is rather less than the l-25th of an inch in diameter, so 

 that one cubic inch of food would suffice for a generation of at 

 least 20,000 of these parasites. 



I am afraid I have been rather straying away from my subject — 

 the Heteroptera. The first group, in which the Scutellum is very 

 large, consists of three families ; the most important of which is 

 the Arthropteridse, of which the first insect in the box, Acantho- 

 soma Hcemorrhoidale, affords a good example. Closely allied to 

 this is Acanthosoma griseiim, quite common enough, though I 

 have not yet come across one. They are particularly partial to 

 raspberries, and often quite spoil the fruit they touch ; they are 

 popularly known as Bishops, or Bishop's Mitres. Their peculiar 

 odour is caused by a very volatile fluid they have the power of 

 emitting from two small pores on the underside of the body, and 

 which is only perceived when the insect is alarmed and which it 

 probably uses for defensive purposes. 



Although most of this family are injurious to the horticul- 

 turalist, there is one — a native of France — that is said to destroy 



