74 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



very kindly forwarded to me the whole of his collection of 

 Meteoridse for inspection. 



Ashmead, in his classification of the Ichneumonidse,* divides 

 his subfamily Meteorinae into five genera, restoring Zemiotus 

 and Proteins (Forster) which had been rejected, apparently for 

 very good reasons, by Marshall. For convenience sake, however, 

 I will treat our British representatives as of but one genus, 

 Meteorus, Kal.A as did Morley in his notes.! 



The British species are comparatively few in number, some 

 thirty-five .or so having been recorded, including two or three 

 rather doubtful ones. They are distinguished by having three 

 cubital areolets on the fore wings, and, as in the true ichneumons, 

 a petiolated abdomen. While usually parasitic on the larvae of 

 Lepidoptera, some are known to prey on the larvae of Coleoptera, 

 and Morley has published a record of M. versicolor having been 

 bred from the larva of a Tenthredinid. 



From April until late autumn they are to be found on the 

 wing, and although I have no knowledge that they ever hibernate 

 in the perfect state, it is possible that at least M. Jilator, 

 which has often been taken in November, and M. melanostictus 

 which I have found so late as December 17th, may do so. 



Most of the Meteoridae are solitary parasites, though a few 

 are social; of the former several weave brown shining cocoons 

 which are suspended by a silken thread from leaves or twigs of 

 the plant on which the host has fed. This swing rope is 

 generally from a half to two inches in length, though I have 

 known it to reach eight inches. Marshall writes of these 

 cocoons § : " The head of the insect is always turned downwards, 

 and, as it spins by the mouth, we have to account for the fact 

 that somehow it is able to reverse its position in the air, since 

 at the moment of its first suspension the head would naturally 

 be uppermost ; so far as I know, no observation has yet been 

 made to explain this circumstance." With regard to this, I 

 have several times watched the larva of M. pulchricornis emerge 

 from its host, and the proceeding is somewhat as follows : — 

 The head of the parasite larva is, of course, protruded first, and 

 when about half the body is free a pad of silk is spun on the leaf 

 or twig on which the host rests ; after this the remainder of the 

 body is withdrawn, and the parasite lowers itself from the pad 

 by a thread of silk, the head being uppermost, as mentioned by 

 Marshall. By a severe muscular effort, which is not always 

 successful at the first attempt, the apical segment is now brought 

 up until it touches the mouth, and apparently the thread is 

 grasped between the apical and the adjoining segments, i| the 



=1= Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. vol. xxiii. 1900. f Halliday, Ent. Mag. iii. p. 24. 



I ' Entomologist,' 1908, p. 125. § Trans. Ent. Soc. 1887, p. 89. 



II Berthoumieu describes the pedal processes on the apical segments of 

 larvae of Ichneumonidse in Ann. Soc. France, 1895. 



