THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 249 
From this time they scarcely took any more food, and 
descended to the ground; shortly after they spun up, some 
just below the surface and some above, among leaves. The 
cocoons were of two different sorts (figs. 8 and 9),—one of a 
chestnut-brown colour and very shining, as though varnished ; 
the other straw-coloured, and less shining. With regard to 
this difference among the cocoons I simply attribute it to the 
greater or less vigour and healthy condition of the larva, the 
strongest larve producing the darkest-coloured cocoons. 
Dahlbom mentions in his ‘Conspectus’ a Nematus Gros- 
sularie (the same as our N. ventricosus) and a Nematus 
grossulariatus; the latter was identical with his Grossulariz, 
but constructed a single yellow cocoon on a twig, and not, 
as the other, a double cocoon of a black or brown colour in, 
or just on the surface of, the ground. It is evident that 
Grossulariatus was only a sickly example of Grossulariz. 
The cocoons spun by my larve were all single; both the 
brown and the yellow. One would have thought that larve 
which had become pupz at the end of May would have 
produced imagos by June, and a second generation in July 
and August; however, this was not the case; and I found 
afterwards that the larve which I had got to spin up 
belonged to the second generation of that year. I never 
succeeded in rearing the perfect insect, except in March, 
1871, from larve which had spun up at the end of May, 
1870; and the imagos of that month paired and laid eggs, 
whence larve were produced, which would again have been 
full grown in May. From this it appears that the species in 
question has two early broods, and no summer or autumn 
brood. Between the 18th and the 22nd of March I obtained 
ten females and one male. They ali differed from Ventricosus 
in the coloration of thorax, abdomen, and coxex. The 
following is a description of the female, taken from a 
living specimen (see figs. 10 and 11):—Head dark brown, 
approaching black; the margins of the eyes, however, being 
yellowish. Eyes black. ‘Trophi sordid white, with the 
exception of the tips of the mandibles, which are black. 
Antenne entirely black. Dorsum of the thorax black, 
with a brown reflection; the pronotum, however, being 
yellow. Pectus black; only on the pleura, which are very 
shining, is an oval space of a red-brown colour, gradually 
Qk 
