142 A Short Sketch of the Ichneumons. 
back. This insect is found in Germany, where it attacks the pupze 
of one of the Fritillary butterflies, AZe/tte@a maturna. 
All the Cryprip# have stalked abdomens almost linear or 
cuneiform in the males, but in the females, flattened down and 
drawn out to a tail or terebra. The fore-wings generally have 
three submarginal cells, of which the middle one is quad- 
rilateral, and is termed the discal areolet. Cryptus migrator, a 
typical example of this family, is of a black ground colour, 
with the first four segments of the abdomen and legs red, except- 
ing the tarsi of the hind legs, which are black at the extremity. 
The outer part of the abdomen and a ring round the antennz of 
the female are white. The length of this insect is about 11 
millimetres. 
We now come to the last group of ichneumons, the ICHNEU- 
MONID&, which may fairly rank the highest in importance of all 
the families of Ichneumonites. It includes thirty-six European 
genera, among which 4md/yteles contains fifty and /chneumon over 
a hundred species inhabiting Germany. 
We take the genus /chneumon as a fitting representative of this 
enormous family. The insects belonging to this genus may be 
recognised by their flattened petiolate abdomen, which, in the 
female, contains the ovipositor. In the fore-wings the discal areolet 
is of a pentagonal form. A very marked difference may be 
observed between the antennz of the two sexes in all the species 
of Ichneumon. Those of the males have joints which are not 
readily distinguished, and when the insect is dead they continue 
to remain extended. On the contrary, the female antennze have 
very distinct joints, and are frequently also adorned with a white 
ring ; after the insect has been killed, they always curl up. 
Our first example of this genus, /chneumon pisorius,is mostly of 
a black colour, but from the second segment of the abdomen 
nearly down to the extremity is dirty yellow. Beyond this the 
sexes differ considerably in colouring. In the male insect the 
scutellum is white, while the face and legs are yellow with 
black spots. In the female the scutellum is pure yellow, with the 
exception of a line in front of the base of the wings, while the 
ground colour (black) occurs on the legs only, in a band round 
the tibie. The upper and front borders of the eyes and one 
joint of the antennz are yellow. The larve of this insect are 
parasitic on the caterpillars of several hawk-moths. 
Our last example is taken from the same genus, and is known 
to entomologists under the scientific name of /chneumon mant- 
Sestus. 
It is a large conspicuous insect of a reddish brown colour, and 
about the size of the average “ Daddy-long-legs.” It generally 
appears towards the middle of August, and seems to fly about in 
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