144 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 
lyn burrows, and that when the Ichneumon hovered over them, they 
appeared alarmed, and instinctively endeavoured to escape (Swansea 
Coleopt. p. 27.; and see Boheman on Pimpla ovivora, in Swed. Trans. 
1821, and Bull. Sci. Nat.; Davis in Mag. Nat. Hist. No. 19.; Bouché, 
Naturgesch. Ins. p. 145. With the exception of those species of Aphi- 
des which always remain in an apterous state, and which are subject 
to the attacks of the Aphidii, &c., no account has been published of 
the Ichneumonide attacking perfect insects, except the statement of 
M. Boudier, that he had observed a small Ichneumon “ cramponné sur 
le dos de Trachyphleus scabriculus. I] avait introduit sa tarriére entre 
les elytres et abdomen par l’anus” (Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, 1834, 
p- 322.), and a paragraph I have met with in an American Journal, 
in which it is asserted, that a female Ichneumon deposits its eggs in 
the body of the winged grasshopper, the interior of which is at length 
entirely consumed ; “‘and, at the proper season, hundreds of grasshop- 
pers in this condition may be found with just strength enough remaining 
to flutter to a tree or fence, and with a dying effort to fix their hooked 
feet so firmly as to retain their position long after death.” I believe 
it has not been decidedly ascertained whether the species of these 
insects confine their attacks to precise species of caterpillars, &c., or 
whether the same species occasionally attacks others; the question 
has, however, repeatedly been proposed (Bree in Mag. Nat. Hist. 
No. 23.).* The majority of these insects deposit their eggs in the 
larvee of other insects ; but various instances are collected by Kirby 
and Spence, proving that they also attack the eggs, and more rarely 
the pupe ; thus Cryptus compunctor Fad. deposits its eggs in the 
pupz of butterflies. In the Insect Architecture, p. 195., it is stated 
that an Ichneumon (Ophion luteum) had deposited its eggs in the 
cocoon of a puss moth; but this is, I apprehend, a misstatement, as that 
insect oviposits in the larva of the moth. Hitherto, no species of this 
family has been observed which is not parasitical. Mr. Curtis, indeed, 
published a species of Alysia (A. apii), of which the larve are 
stated to have been found feeding upon the parenchyma of celery 
leaves at the end of September (B. E. 141.) ; but he subsequently 
* Greenhow (in Mag. Nat. Hist.) asserts that Microgaster glomeratus attacks 
both Pontia brassice, and Arctia caja; but he had not evidently investigated 
the species of the parasite. Bouché more minutely describes M. glomeratus as 
attacking several allied species of the white butterflies, describing other species as 
distinct which infest Pieris crategi (M. pieridis), Arctia caja (M. caje), and 
Liparis dispar (M. liparidis). Naturgesch. der Ins. ‘p. 151. 
