A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 

 ENTOMOPHAGA 

 ICHNEUMONIDiE 



Ichneumon flies 



It is not necessary in a general work like the present to give volu- 

 minous notes regarding the economy of the species here treated ; suffice 

 it to say that all Ichneumonids are parasitic, some of them hyperparasitic, 

 living during their larval condition entomophagously amid the adipose 

 tissues of the caterpillars and chrysalides of Lepidoptera, Diptera, 

 Coleoptera and Tenthredinidas, a few even preying upon spiders and 

 their egg-sacs. The Ichneumonides and Ophionides attack, almost ex- 

 clusively, butterflies and moths ; the Homalopi group of the Tryphonides 

 destroy large numbers of injurious sawflies ; the Schizodontes group lay 

 their eggs in dipterous larvs, e.g. Syrphus, etc. ; the Pimplides play 

 most havoc amongst the Coleoptera, especially the Longicornia ; and the 

 Cryptides appear to distribute their parasitism, which often extends to 

 fellow-members of their own family. 



It appears strange that we should have no more recent British 

 catalogue of these conspicuous insects than that compiled by Rev. T. A. 

 Marshall in 1872; but, since such is the case, it is perhaps preferable 

 to follow the nomenclature there adopted (based upon that of Holmgren, 

 Taschenberg and Wesmael) than to classify the species according to 

 modern continental and American systems, which would throw British 

 readers with a slight knowledge of the subject into hopeless confusion, 

 since the synonymy has undergone numerous rectifications, the genera 

 have been subdivided and greatly augmented, and even the subfamilies 

 and tribes have often been redistributed. 



The bulk of the material at my disposal was collected by the authors 

 of the Natural History of Hastings and named for them by Messrs. 

 Bridgman, Fitch and Bignell. The majority of these specimens were 

 most generously presented to me by Rev. E. N. Bloomfield in 1898, 

 though a few are in Mr. Bridgman's collection in the Norwich Museum. 

 I have consequently been enabled to carefully examine these Sussex 

 examples and to correct such errors as had crept into the local records. 

 Since the publication in 1898 of the third supplement to the above 

 history a very few species have been added by Messrs. Bennett, Esam, 

 Theobald and myself. From other parts of the county there is a great 

 paucity of information concerning this little- known family. Mr. Alfred 

 Beaumont has collected a few species at Harting, Pevensey and Horsley; 

 Mr. E. A. Elliott a few at Littlehampton ; Mr. Esam at Eastbourne ; 

 and Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher has bred some from Sussex hosts at Worthing. 



It is doubtful whether the species in the Hastings Museum are 

 from Sussex. 



Marshall represents 1,186 species as British, and up to the present 

 time an additional 533 have been recorded, bringing the total number 

 of indigenous species to 1,719; but I anticipate that nearly 2,500 occur 

 with us. Only 280 have been noticed in Sussex. 



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