49 



a bright metallic blue, with, in some cases, a very faint approach 

 to green ; while the abdomen is shining testaceous, with the 

 basal half of the third segment black, and the fourth and fifth 

 metallic blue or violet. 



" In the male of Cleptes nitidula, the colour of the basal 

 joint of the antennae, head, thorax and femora is a bright 

 golden green ; while the first and second segments of the 

 abdomen are obscure and also testaceous, the third, fourth, and 

 fifth deep black, with no approach of a chalybeous 

 reflection. 



" These few observations I think clearly prove that 

 Shuckard had certainly not the male of C. nitidula to 

 describe from, while Mr. Smith's description would almost 

 lead one to suppose — unless he had a number of speci- 

 mens under observation — that instead of describing the male 

 C. semiauratus, he was actually describing the rarer of the 

 two species, viz., C. nitidula." 



Mr. Billups then called attention to four groups of 

 Cocoons, from which he had reared a large number of 

 Microgaster flavipes, Hall., and stated that this species of 

 Braconidae was parasitic in the larvae of Boarmia repandata, 

 from which it had been repeatedly bred by Kriechbaumer 

 and Brischke on the Continent, and by Bignell and Cooper 

 in this country. The whole of the M icrogasterida were in- 

 ternal parasites, living in the body of a single victim larger 

 than themselves, and in the case of some of the smaller 

 species, issue in great numbers from the same caterpillar, 

 forming their cocoons in clusters like a honeycomb, their 

 heads, however, not being all turned the same way, the imago 

 making its exit from both sides of the so-called honeycomb, 

 which is always fixed up on edge. The following numbers 

 which emerged from the cocoons exhibited, will give some 

 idea of the fecundity of these parasites, 82, 66, 67, and 57, 

 a total of 272 specimens from four larvae of Boarmia, 

 added to which there were in each cluster of cocoons a large 

 number which perished, not being able to release them- 

 selves. 



