ATTEMPTED DIVISION OF BRITISH INSECTS. 407 



hair or body of its prey, or to the trees and leaves in the neigh- 

 bourhood, from which it is occasionally seen suspended by a 

 silken thread ; more than thirty of these parasites sometimes feed 

 within the body of a single caterpillar of the cabbage butterfly, 

 ■which may be seen in numbers glued to palings, in the autumn, 

 by these parasites, and surrounded by their little yellow cocoons, 

 giving to the uninstructed the idea of a caterpillar sitting on its 

 eggs. Imago, with the antennae ten- to twenty -jointed ; man- 

 dibles short, generally bifid ; maxillae obtuse, feelers six-jointed, 

 elongate ; labium short ; ligula obtuse and entire ; feelers four- 

 jointed ; ocelli three ; fore-wings with fewer nervures than the 

 following Order ; hind-wings with still less ; podeon slender and 

 short; oviduct with two protecting appendages. Inhabits grass, 

 shrubs, &c. throughout the summer ; often flies in a vaulting 

 company, like gnats in the sunshine ; runs slowly. Bassus, Rogas, 

 Alysia, Bracon, Microcjaster, Microdus, Sigalphus, Aphidius. 



Natural Order. — Ichneumonites. 



Larva elongate, with the divisions of the segments clearly defined ; 

 an indentation frequently passes along the sides, above and below 

 the middle portion, which thus becomes raised : solitary ; inhabits 

 and devours the fleshy parts of other insects, while they are them- 

 selves yet alive and performing their usual functions; during the 

 whole of its parasitic career taking care to do no injury to those 

 parts on which the life of its prey depends. Pupa changes some- 

 times within the shell of the pupa of the Lepidopterous insects ; 

 sometimes in the ground, in a tough, close, leathery cocoon, spun 

 by the larva. Imago, with long filiform antennae composed of about 

 forty joints; mandibles short, stout, acute, and bifid; maxillae 

 dilated and obtuse, their feelers six-jointed, and often very long ; 

 labium short, its ligula short and bilobed, its feelers generally 

 four-jointed ; ocelli three ; fore- and hind-wings with numerous 

 nervures ; podeon always slender, seldom or never elongate ; 

 oviduct generally defended by a setaceous appendage on each 

 side, thus appearing to be triple : varies greatly in length. In- 

 habits vegetables of all kinds throughout the summer, the females 

 busily engaged in searching after Lepidopterous larvae in which 

 to deposit their eggs ; their wings and antenna? are continually in 

 motion ; the males frequent umbellate flowers, and feed on pollen ; 

 the females not unfrequently eat small insects and larvae. Ich- 

 neumon, Anomalon, Ophion, Banchus, Peltastes, Alomya, Cryptus, 

 Pimpla, Xylonomus. 



