2QO OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES. 



ensue. In the heat of the day, men are often obliged to desist 

 from ploughing. Saddle-horses are also very troublesome at 

 such seasons. Country people call this insect the nose fly.* 



ICHNEUMON FLY. 



I SAW lately a small ichneumon fly attack a spider much larger 

 than itself on a grass walk. When the spider made any resist- 

 ance, the ichneumon applied her tail to him, and stung him with 

 great vehemence, so that he soon became dead and motionless. 

 The ichneumon then running backward drew her prey very 

 nimbly over the walk into the standing grass. This spider would 

 be deposited in some hole where the ichneumon would lay some 

 eggs ; and as soon as the eggs were hatched, the carcase would 

 afford ready food for the maggots. 



Perhaps some eggs might be injected into the body of the 

 spider, in the act of stinging. Some ichneumons deposit their 

 eggs in the aurelia of moths and butterflies.f 



BOMBYLIUS MEDIUS. 



THE bombylius medius is much about in March and the begin- 

 ning of April, and soon seems to retire. It is an hairy insect, 

 like an humble-bee, but with only two wings, and a long straight 

 beak, with which it sucks the early flowers. The female seems 

 to lay its eggs as it poises on its wings, by striking its tail on 

 the ground, and against the grass that stands in its way, in a 

 quick manner, for several times together. % 



* Is not this insect the oestrus nasalis of Linnaeus, so well described by Mr. Clark in the third 

 volume of the Linnaean Transactions, under the name of oestrus veterinus P MAKKWICK. 



t In my Naturalist's Calendar for 1/95, July 21st, I find the following note r 



It is not uncommon for some of the species of ichneumon flies to deposit their eggs in the 

 chrysalis of a butterfly :* some time ago I put two of the chrysalis of a butterfly into a box and 

 covered it with gauze, to discover what species of butterfly they would produce ; but, instead of a 

 butterfly, one of them produced a number of small ichneumon flies. 



There are many instances of the great service these little insects are to mankind in reducing 

 the number of noxious insects, by depositing their eggs in the soft bodies of their larva ; but 

 none more remarkable than that of the ichneumon tipula, which pierces the tender body and 

 deposits its eggs in the larva of the tipnla tritici, an insect which, when it abounds greatly, is 

 yery prejudicial to the grains of wheat. This operation J have frequently seen it perform with 

 wonder and delight.* MARKWICK. 



* Some minute species deposit their ova in the eggs of other insects. ED. 



i I have often seen this insect fly with great velocity, stop on a sudden, hang in the air in a 

 stationary position for some time, and then fly off again ; but do not recollect having tvcr seen it 

 btrike its tail against the ground, or any other substance. MABK.WICK. 



