236 Rev. Mr. Kirey’s Hiffory of 
is appointed to prevent it. It is fome fatisfaction to me to cor 
firm your opinion * and do juftice to our: little benefactor, and to 
point out where the odium ought to fall. 
To fee our little /neumon depofit its eg im the caterpillar of 
the wheat fly, is a very entertaining fight. In order to enjoy this 
pleafure, I placed a number of the latter wpon a fheet of white paper, 
at no great diftance from each other, and then fet’ an Ichneumon 
down in the midft of them. She began» immediately to march 
about, vibrating her antennz very brifkly :—a larva was foon dif- 
covered, upon which fhe fixed herfelf, the vibratory motion of her 
antenne increafing to an intenfe degree; then bending her body 
obliquely under her breaft, {he applied ‘her anus. to’ the larva, and 
during the infertion of her acw/eus; and the depofiting of the egg, 
her antenn# became perfectly ftill and motionlefs.’ Whilf this 
operation was performing, the larva appeared to feel a motnentary 
fenfation of pain, for it gave a violent wriggle. “When all was 
finifhed, the little Mhnéumon ‘marched. off | ‘to Meek! for a ‘fecond, 
which was obliged to undergo the fame operation, and-foon to as 
many as it could find in which no egg had been before depofited— 
for it commits only a fingle egg to each larva. I have feen it fre- 
quently mount one which had been pticked before, but it foon dif- 
covered its miftake and left it. The fize of it is fo near that of the 
Tipula, that I imagine the larva of the latter could not fupport more 
.than one of the former, and therefore inftin& direéts it to depofit 
only a fingle egg in each; befides, by this means one Febnermain will 
deftroy an infinite number of larve, ~ : 
The larva of the Tipula Tritici (as Mr. Markwick, in his letter to 
you, dated July ¥7, 1797, has well conje€tured) appears to feed upon 
* Tranf. Lion. Soc. vol. ii. p. 243. : 
the 
