KNOWLEDGE OF THE BRITISH BRACONIDiE. 125 



(twenty-one), and many other times. Clutten has also bred it 

 from the same host taken at Burnley. Bred from larvse of 

 Tcsniocampa stabilis, July 7th, 1911 (eight), July 23th, 1911 

 (eight), July 26th, 1911 (seven), and many other dates, from 

 larva of Graptolitha {Xylina) ornithopus, July 24th, 1911 (four). 

 On May 6th, 1909, I bred a single male from a small larva of 

 Triphcena fimbria ; in this case the cocoon was suspended by a 

 thread an inch or so long from the roof of a breeding cage ; the 

 larva had not reversed its position, as is usual with those 

 Meteoridae which construct pendulous cocoons, so that the imago 

 emerged from the uppermost end of the cocoon. I think that 

 the unusual position of this cocoon was probably merely an 

 accident, through the host being on the roof of the cage when 

 the parasite larva emerged, and not at all likely to be of common 

 occurrence. Like Marshall I have never met with any of the 

 dark vars. described by Euthe, and am inclined to believe that 

 they may be referred to M. leviventris. The two species are 

 certainly very close, though in M. leviventris the first abcissa of 

 the radius is as long as the second, while in M. liiridus it is 

 considerably shorter. All my specimens of M. luridus are 

 uniformly pale. 



M. leviventris (Wesm.). — Very similar to M. luridus but 

 differing in colour, being much darker. A gregarious parasite 

 of the larvffi of Lepidoptora, said to be common. 



The cocoons are fusiform, brown, rather woolly with a lighter 

 spot at the smaller extremity, 4^-5 mm. in length (fig. 9). I 

 can detect little or no difference between them and those made 

 by M. luridus, though possibly they may be rather darker and 

 slightly smaller. Morley described the cocoon as '"' cylindrical, 

 dirty white, much more woolly at the anal half and only 

 3|- mm. in length." I have seen the cocoon from which he took 

 this description, and although it is certainly of this species, it is 

 dilapidated, undersized, much rubbed, and accordingly mis- 

 leading. The larva is elongate, attenuate at both extremities, 

 cream coloured, with the parts of the mouth outlined in brown, 

 also a brown ring on either side of the first segment above ; as 

 might be supposed, it is very similar to the larva of M. luridus. 

 The larvae leave their host when the latter has prepared to pupate, 

 so that the cocoons are to be found underground. 



Bred from larvje of Triphcena pronuba, November 3rd, 1913 

 (twenty-one), November 4th, 1913 (seventeen; ten males and 

 seven females), and November 9th, 1913 (sixteen; seven males 

 and six females, three failed to emerge). 



I am not aware that a host for this species has been hitherto 

 recorded. 



