NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 169 



headquarters of the Society is in the Natural History Museum, 

 Cromwell Eoad, London, S.W., and the hon. secretaries, Mr. Ogilvie 

 Grant and the Hon. F. E. Henley, will be glad to communicate par- 

 ticulars to those interested or willing to join as members without 

 subscription. — H. E.-B. 



The Entomological Society of Washington. — On April 3rd 

 Dr. David Sharp, Lawnside, Brockenhurst, Hants, England, and Dr. 

 J. H. Fabre, Serignan, Vaucluse, France, were chosen as the first two 

 honorary members of the Entomological Society of Washington. The 

 Entomological Society of Washington has ten honorary members to 

 be chosen from among foreign entomologists. 



Protozoan Parasites of Ichneumonid^:. — I have recently 

 named Ichneumonidae containing these parasites, and the following 

 communication has been most kindly placed in my hands for publi- 

 cation. — Claude Morley. 



It is of interest to note that certain parasitic Ichneumons may 

 themselves harbour Protozoan parasites. During the researches of 

 Drs. H. B. Fantham and Annie Porter on the Protozoa of Hyvien- 

 optera, they discovered two parasitic Protozoa in Steniclineumon 

 trilineatus, the common destroyer of the gooseberry moth, Abraxas 

 grossulariata. The first parasite, found in the alimentary canal and 

 fat body, is a very small sporozoon belonging to the Microsporidia, 

 and closely allied to the pathogenic agent of the Isle of Wight Bee 

 Disease, also discovered by these authors. The organism belongs to 

 the genus Nosema. It forms small, oval, shining spores, about one- 

 thousandth of the size of a rice grain. Each spore contains an 

 amoebula which creeps out from the spore-coat and enters the cells 

 lining the alimentary tract or the fat body, where it multiplies 

 by repeated division. Each of the daughter forms thus produced 

 ultimately secretes a coat for itself and becomes a spore. The spores 

 serve for the infection of other Ichneumonids. This new Micro- 

 sporidian is named Nosema ichneumonis. 



The second protozoon is a Flagellate belonging to the genus 

 Herpetomonas, and named Herpetomonas ichneumonis. The organism 

 is found in the alimentary canal, where it undergoes three phases of 

 development. It is first a small ovoid body, possessing a large and 

 a small nucleus, and resembling the Leishman-Donovan body, the 

 pathogenic agent of the Indian disease, Kala-azar. This form is 

 known as the pre-flagellate stage. As it grows in the mid-gut of 

 the Ichneumon, the body elongates and forms a long flagellum, so 

 that the organism now has a vermiform or snake-like body with a 

 single flagellum at one end. The flagellum executes vigorous lash- 

 ing movements, and the organism as a whole moves in jerks. As it 

 reaches the hind-gut, where the contents are more concentrated, the 

 parasite absorbs its flagellum, becomes oval again, and forms a 

 thickened wall or coat around itself. Thus encystment occurs. The 

 cysts or post-flagellate stages pass from the insect's body in the 

 faeces, and are well adapted for extra-corporeal life until they are 

 ingested by a new Ichneumon, when the cycle commences again. 



Is Tinea pallescentella Graniverous? — When Stainton in 

 1851 described Tinea pallescentella (Sup. Cat. p. 2) from a specimen 



