68 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 1912 



found by Mr John Gill in Green Lane, Hucclecote, near Glou- 

 cester, on the 15th June, 1912, and very kindly given to me 

 by its captor a week after. I submitted the drawing to Mr 

 Claude Morley, F.E.S., F.Z.S., who identified the specimen for 

 me. He says {in Hit.) : — 



" It is of general di.stribution, but cannot be said to be by any means 

 common. I have never personally met with it in twenty years' col- 

 lecting. . . . It is parasitic upon the larger Sirices, Gigas and 

 Noctilis (cf. my Ichn. Brit. vol. iii.) " 



It belongs to the sub-family Pimplin.^ of the family 

 IcHNEUMONiD/E of the Tribe Entomophaga of the order 

 Hymenoptera, which order includes the bees, wasps, ants, 

 ichneumon flies, saw-flies, gall-flies and their aUies. This in- 

 sect is met with in fir plantations, and uses its extraordinary 

 ovipositor to drill holes in trees infested by the larvae of the 

 Larch Borers, or Tailed Wasps {Sirex gigas, &c.) on which its 

 own is parasitic. The insect frequently drives its ovipositor 

 so firmly into the wood of the tree that it is unable to with- 

 draw it and perishes in this position. 



