480 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



are more numerous. This species of cateipUlar is peculiarly 

 subject to the attacks of the ichneumon flies, as is well ki^pwn 

 to all practical entomologists, who lose many of their carefully- 

 bred specimens by means of these insects. 



There is also one of the winter cocoons of the Goat Moth 

 caterpillar, the inmate of which has been pierced by the ichneu- 

 mon fly, and killed by its young. As the species of ichneumon 

 is a laige one, only a single individual was produced, and as may 

 be seen from the cell of the parasite which is placed by the side 

 of its victim, the habitation of the ichneumon is so large that it 

 must have occupied nearly the entire cocoon of the dead cater- 

 pillar. 



In another room, placed among the series of British moths, is 

 a cocoon of a Puss Moth {Cerura vinula), which has been occu- 

 pied by two ichneumon larvae. 



If the reader should happen to know the cocoon of this moth, 

 he will remember that it is made of wood-scrapings, glued to- 

 gether with a cement secreted by the insect, and that its walls 

 are so hard that a tolerably strong knife is required in order to 

 cut it open. That the eggs of a parasite should be introduced 

 into the body of the larva is not an extraordinary circumstance, 

 but that the perfect insects should be able to make their way out 

 of such a cocoon is reaUy wonderful The interior of this cell is 

 hard and smooth as if made of polished ebony, and its concavity 

 renders it more difficult of penetratioa Yet these singular 

 insects contrive to make their way through the sturdy waUs. 



The ichneumons which usually attack the Puss Moth are 

 rather large insects, belonging to the genus Ophion, and have 

 long, slender, curved abdomens, and long antennse slightly 

 twisted at the ends. The colour is orange, diversified with 

 black. Those which have made their cells in the above-men- 

 tioned cocoon belong to the species called Paniscvs glaucopterus, 

 and are of a yellowish hue. It sometimes happens that the 

 insects fail in making their way through the cell-walls and die 

 in the interior. This accident, however, seems chiefly to befall 

 the ichneumons produced in cocoons which are kept in houses 

 for the purpose of breeding the Puss Moth, and which are in 

 consequence harder and more dry than those which remain in 

 the open air, adhering to the trunks of trees. 



