146 MUDERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 
that the females of various species of the genus Tryphon (T. pinguis 
and varitarsus) were furnished near the extremity of the abdomen on 
the underside with a variable number of small pear-shaped or oviform 
vesicle-like bodies, of a white or straw colour, being more obtuse and 
darker-coloured at the tips, of which he says, “ova esse videntur.” 
Subsequently Haliday communicated to Curtis specimens of the latter 
insect, “ with a sketch of the larvz, for such they are, and not eggs,” 
in different stages ; and he found as many as eighteen of them attached 
to one insect (fig. 76. 2.): “at first they are all smooth, pear-shaped, 
and of a shining opaque waxy tint (fig. 76. 3.), but in a few days they 
appear as represented at fig. 76. 4., which is the underside; at this 
stage its voracious powers develope themselves, and I find the oldest 
generally making a meal of his next neighbour.” He observed two 
motions in the mouth, one an opening and shutting of the mandibles ; 
the other, a general dilatation and contraction of the membrane of 
the mouth. The observations of De Geer enable us to judge of the 
true nature of these bodies respecting which Curtis (B. E., 399.) has 
made some remarks. It is evident that the insect, probably in the 
agony of death, had extruded its already developed and impregnated 
eggs, without being able to place them in their true locality, whence 
they remained attached to the abdomen of the parent, the larvae 
shortly afterwards hatching (as in Ophion), and feeding, for want of 
its own food, upon its congeners. Dr. Hartig has still more recently 
published an interesting memoir on the pedunculated eggs of various 
Ichneumonide (Archiv. fiir Naturg. vol. iii. tab. 4.), exhibiting the 
abdomen of Tryphon cancer, with avery great number of eggs attached 
to its extremity beneath ; Tryphon caudatus in the act of depositing a 
pedunculated egg (fig. 76. 5., '76.6., showing the passage of the egg 
down the ovipositor); the singularly pedunculated egg of Sphinctus 
serotinus and Paniscus testaceus (fig. 76. 9.), together with the 
egg hatched, with the head of the larva exposed (fig. 76.10.), and with 
the larva itself detached from the eggshell (fig. 76. 11.). 

feeds on the stems and head of a species of thistle, to the exterior surface of the 
body of which a small parasitic larva is attached, being evidently a small Ichneu- 
monideous larva, the head of which is described as having “ deux espéces de cornes,” 
and as being destitute of hooks or teeth. De Geer has described an Iechneumon 
Jarva, found on the outside of the body of a spider, which it destroyed, and has 
figured a larva of Cerura vinula, on the surface of whose body are numerous 
minute naked larve, apparently of a species of Microgaster, some of which haye 
spun cocoons. (Mém. vol. i. pl. 23. f. 17.) 
