178 



ICHNEUMONID^.- 



-INSECTS.- 



-Chalcidid^e. 



Tribe— PUPIVORA. 



So named from their being parasitic on the larvae 

 and pupse of insects, at the expense of wliich the grubs of 

 the Pupivora live. They were named Muscw trisetes 

 by old authors, from the three often long, bristle-like 

 parts of which their ovipositor chiefly is composed. 



Family— ICHNEUMONIDiE {Ichneumons). 



The perseverance of these insects in depositing their 

 eggs is very noticeable. In the summer months we 

 often see some of them in our gardens, exarainiug 

 every leaf on the upper and under sides to find the 

 caterpillars in which to place their eggs, vibrating their 

 antenme and wings, and evidently very restless and 

 impatient. 



One of the finest of the Ichneumonidje is the North 

 American li/iijssa lunator. It is common on Montreal 

 mountain, in August and the beginning of September. 

 The female may be then easily taken, when depositing 

 her eggs in some stump or dead tree, as they insert 

 tlu'ir ovipositors so deeply into the wood that they can- 

 not wiLlidraw them quickly ; and as the insect endeavours 

 to escape, these organs are frequently broken. 



In Canada many people fancy tliat it is the Rlnjssa 

 which kills trees by " slinging" them, as they term it, 

 and so as often as they see it, they heedlessly destroy 

 the very creature which helps to lessen the real enemy 

 of the tree, whose works are more secret and deep. 



In this country the fine Rhyssa persiiasoria, the 

 largest of the tribe, is frequently found in districts that 

 are well wooded with firs; these trees are at times 

 much injured by the large saw-fly, Sircx juvencus, 

 which bores into the trunks and deposits its eggs. The 

 larvae, when hatched, do immense mischief by tunnel- 

 ing in all directions. These ravages are, however, 

 frequently arrested by the li/ii/ssa persuasoriu, the 

 parasite of the Sirex. The Ichneumon larva, feeding 

 upon that of Rhyssa, cliecks in some degree the injuries 

 of that species. 



PELECINUS POIYCERATOE— The Needle Ichneu- 

 mon. Mr. Gosse, in his " Canadian Naturalist," p. 289, 

 aptly applied the name of the Needle Ichneumon to 

 this very singular insect. The female is of a polished 

 black, and has a very long abdomen, the first five seg- 

 ments being each a third of an inch in length; the 

 abdomen in the male, a sex which seems to be rare, is 

 comparatively short. This insect seems to be abundant 

 in Nova Scotia, but in Canada it is not so common. It 

 is widely distributed over North America. 



The long abdomen may be used by this insect in 

 oviposition, it not being furnished with the usual ovipo- 

 sitor. Other species of the genus are found in 

 Columbia and Brazil. 



The family of Ichneumons is by far the most extensive 

 one for numbers of species that exists. There are at 

 leist one hundred and twenty British geneia, and one 

 of these genera has upwards of two hundred species, 

 while others have twenty, and others sixty species each. 

 When it is considered that almost every Lepidopter- 

 ous insect has its peculiar parasite of this farailj', and 



some of them more than one 

 numbers may be formed. 



The two Ichneumonidje, figured on Plate 7, repre- 

 sent characteristic examples — fig. 3, the Banchus pic- 

 tus, with a very short ovipositor, and fig. 7, Ephialtes 

 manifestator^ with a long one. 



Family— PROCTOTRUPID^. 



A very extensive family of insects, allied to the 

 Ichneumonidse. Many of them are exquisite little 

 creatures, such as the charming Mymar pAilchcllus, 

 figured by Jlr. Curtis. There are nearly fifty British 

 genera ; one of these genera {Platijfjastcr) has upwards 

 of one hundred species. Mr. Haliday (note to " West- 

 wood's Synopsis," vol. ii., p. 79) records, that the 

 Alaptus mmimus, one of the species, is the smallest 

 Hymenopterous insect known. 



All the species are very small, and are parasitic on 

 eggs of insects or on insects themselves. 



Family— CIIALCIDID^Ti: {The Brassleis). 



The Chalcididoe are a very minute family of parasitic 

 insects, often of the most transcendant metallic polish, 

 with filmy wings of few nervures, and sometimes with 

 strangely-formed antenna; and heads, while the ovipo- 

 sitors of the females, are very curious — at times short 

 and daggerdike, at others long and thread-like (fig. 53). 

 Their numbers are legion — see fig. 53. 



Fig. 53. 



Agaon paradosiun. 



I can only refer to one of the members of this family. 

 In the cells of that interesting bee, the Anthopliora accr- 

 vorum, there is found a jiarasite of this family, named 

 by Jlr. Westwood J\fc!ittohia ; by Mr. Newport, who 

 very particularly described it, Anlluplwrahia. The 

 female of this parasite is a shining dark-green insect, 

 not more than half a line long. The male is equally 

 small, but is of a testaceous yellow colour. In the male 

 the wings are only rudimentary, and the eyes are not 

 compound as usual; but in their place are simple 



