HYMENOPTERA. TEREBRANTTA. 181 



the vegetable- eating tribes, which would otherwise lay 

 the country bare of food, and it has been remarked that 

 in those years in which any one species of Caterpillar 

 has been unusually abundant, the Ichneumons have 

 been proportionately so. Some years ago, the speckled 

 Caterpillars of the Currant Moth were so abundant at 

 Bognor, in Sussex, that it was almost impossible to walk 

 without crushing them by hundreds. The roads were 

 full of them ; the houses were full of them ; trees, 

 palings, walls, were covered by them : it was rare to see 

 a few square inches without one or more of these little 

 animals. A woful prospect for the following ' year, if 

 all of these if, indeed, an average proportion of these 

 should come to maturity, and each one should lay its 

 hundred or so of eggs, to be developed into as many 

 more hungry Caterpillars ! But what happened ? In a 

 few days, trees, walls, palings, were covered with clusters 

 of beautiful little yellow silken cocoons, each containing 

 the germ of a little Ichneumon one of a numerous 

 family which had been feasting within one of these 

 larvae ; and that year the Currant Moth was hardly more 

 abundant than usual. And what became of the little 

 Ichneumons ? Possibly, in their turn, they fell a prey 

 to others as in this family it is not unfrequently that 

 parasite preys on parasite ; perhaps some other animal 

 was made happy by an unusual supply of food. Any- 

 way, we may be sure that these myriads of little 

 creatures were not called into being without a pro- 

 portionate amount of enjoyment in the world; that 

 their lives were not wasted ; that their death was but a 

 means of supplying with life and enjoyment yet another 

 race of living beings. 



Some of the Ichneumons deposit but one egg in one 



