A BRACONID PARASITE ON THE PINE WEEVIL. 145 



apparently in the resting stage, which were attacked by a small 

 legless maggot feeding on them externally. I collected a 

 number of weevil larvae both attacked and immune, and also a 

 number of the attacking maggot. In some cases the weevil 

 larvae were sucked quite flat, and in a few days all those which 

 had been attacked were in this condition. Accordingly I supplied 

 the parasitic larva with more grubs and found that they fed on 

 them readily, crawling 2 or 3 inches to reach their new prey. 



These parasitic larvae measured somewhat over a quarter of an 

 inch in length, and were covered with very short reddish-brown 

 hairs. Unfortunately I was unable, through lack of proper instru- 

 ments to make a close examination of them, and I could not make 

 out the mouth parts. Observation showed, however, that they fed 

 through the skin of their host and were purely external parasites. 

 In September the parasites ceased feeding, and a few days after 

 they moulted and became more definite in shape, and I assumed 

 then that they were Hymenopterous. A fortnight later, on 

 25th September, they commenced spinning silky cocoons, and in 

 a few hours they were completely hidden. All through the 

 winter I examined a few of these cocoons every week, but no 

 alteration in the external appearance of the enclosed larvae was 

 visible until 20th February, when in two out of five cocoons I 

 found pupae. Nine days later the first imago emerged, which I 

 recognised as a Braconid of some sort. 



Dr MacDougall informs me that three years ago he obtained 

 a Braconid parasite on Hylobius, but in such a battered condition 

 as to be unrecognisable. So far as I have been able to ascertain, 

 I know of no other British record of a Braconid on Hylobius. 

 In Ratzeburg's Ichneumonen der Forsiifisekten, however, there is a 

 short account of the rearing, by Nordlinger, of 40 $$ and 4 ^^ 

 from the larvae of U. abietis. I may be permitted to quote 

 Ratzeburg's account. " Nordlinger bred 40 $$ and 4 ^$ from 

 this species {Hylobius abietis) each of whose larvae supports 

 about ten parasites. The cocoons of the latter are firm, oat- 

 shaped and papyraceous, woven among their hosts' frass and 

 dead bodies, and often constructed at the end of the beetles' 

 tunnels beneath fir bark." This description agrees in every 

 respect with my own observations, and accordingly I looked up 

 Ratzeburg's description of the species which he calls Bracon 

 hylobii. It again agrees with the insects I have bred out, and as 

 I have been unable to identify my specimens with any of the 



VOL. XXIX. PART II. K 



