82' W A L L r S M A KT U A L 



abounds in the Southern States, and is very useful in 

 destnrving caterpillars -which swarm on the shade 

 trees. When young, they have abdomens of a bright 

 'fed color, with dark or black spots on their backs. 

 The head and throat are black. When they shed 

 their skins, the}" are greyish in color, and have only 

 the rudiments of wings. It is only in the last stage 

 that they require perfect wings, when they fly with 

 great vigor. The perfect insect measures about sin 

 Inch and a quarter in length. It destroys multitudes 

 of noxious insects, in every stage of their growth y 

 and is therefore highly beneficial. A small specimen 

 experimented with, was placed in a box with ten 

 caterpillars, all of which it destroyed in the space of 

 five hours. 



The Ichneumon Fly. An ichneumon fly is found in 

 the cotton fields of the South, busily employed in the 

 search of some caterpillar, in the body of which to 

 deposit its eggs, as is generally the habit of this class 

 of flies. The eggs being hatched within the cater- 

 pillar, the larva devour the fatty substance, carefully 

 avoiding all the vital parts, until they are fully 

 grown, the caterpillar, in the mean time, changed into 

 a chrysalis, with the devouring Iarva3 in its interior,, 

 the life of the unresisting victim is destroyed, and 

 the grubs change into pupa? and emerge from the 

 chrysalis skin perfect ichneumon flies, to deposit their 

 eggs in turn in otlier caterpillars. These insects are 

 generally seen running about plants infested with 

 caterpillars or worms, continually jerking their wings 

 and anxiously searching every cranny and crevice in 

 quest of. a worm, in which to form the nest and pro- 

 vide food for their young. The ichneumon -fly is 



