144 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



ii bred August 17th from a young larva in the second moult, the 

 parasites being 14 days in pupa (Bignell) ; A. ruficrus, Haldy. 

 (Billups) ; Ambly teles afmatorius, Forst. (Billups) ; Cryptus migrator, 

 Fab. (Hart); Tachina larvarum* from pupa (Robson); T. pupa rum 

 from cocoon (Jeffery) ; Apanteles juniperatae, Be. (Meldola) ; Ophion 

 undulatus, Gr. (Perris) : Schizolonvi amicta, Fab. (Ratzeburg). 

 Clarke notes a fullfed larva completely filled with 56 nearly full- 

 grown ichneumon larvae. Briggs observes that from April 1st — 

 8th, 1869, he found many larva? dead or dying; from one of 

 these 12 large dipterous larvae subsequently came out, one of 

 the imagines emerging on May 21st. He then very pertinently 

 asks : What can be the economy of this parasite — there can 

 be no larvae of M. rubi in which it could oviposit at this 

 date ? Larvae very abundant at Folkestone in August, 1892, 

 but scarcely one seen without ichneumon eggs attached to it 

 (Adkin) ; halfgrown larvae in August, 1877, near Wotton-under- 

 Edge, with several pale brownish cocoons of a species of ich- 

 neumon attached to the hairs of its back and sides, each egg 

 separate and standing at right angles to its body. On August 

 24th, 3 or 4 ? Microgaster flies emerged (Perkins, Ent., x., p. 258) ; 

 a larva picked up in Woolmer Forest evolved similar cocoons, 

 September 12th, and died next day (Robinson). [We may here 

 note that Crewe records that, in the Scilly Isles, in the autumn, 

 the bee - eater ( Merops apiaster) feeds on the larvae of M. rubi, 

 beating them to death on the ground, as a thrush does a snail, 

 and then swallows them whole.] 



Foodplants. — Practically polyphagous (Chapman); when young 

 on hawthorn, later on Carex, Taraxacum officinale, &c. (Lambillion), 

 Potentilla (Farren), heather, beech, oak, Juncus, grasses (Gordon), 

 Rosa spinosissima, Geranium sanguineum (Robson), dwarf sallow 

 (Ellis), raspberry (Riihl), clover (Paul), rose (Hodgkinson), Lotus 

 corniculatus, Rubus caesius, Viola ca?iina, Thymus serpyllum\ (Stowell), 

 aspen (Brown), bilberry (G. O. Day), Spiraea (Pitman), sallow 

 (Bower), Erica (Kaye), bramble (Greer), Poa aquatica (Thouless), 

 Lathyrus pratensis (Leach), Fraxinus elatior (Garbowski), Calluna 

 vulgaris, Betula (? Alnus) glutinosa, B. alba (Newman), Polygonum 

 aviculare (Tutt), Trifolium repens (de Selys), dewberry (Adkin), white 

 osier (Mera), plum (Barnes), lesser burnet, hazel (Prideaux), Vaccinium 

 myrti/lus, Erodium cicutarium (Barrett), willow, strawberry (Baynes x , 

 Potentilla reptans (Favre). 



Habits and habitat. — The interesting habits of this species 

 have given rise to many notes from a great number of observers. 

 The swift-flying male, dashing wildly in the afternoon sun, and 

 evening twilight, attracted before or at dusk in amazing numbers by the 

 newly-emerged female, that booms heavily along later in the evening 

 or soon after dark, seeking a place to oviposit, and, similarly to the 

 occasional custom of the females of some other species of this super- 

 family being now and again attracted by light, where the male M. rubi 



* Larvrc of this species did not leave the caterpillar of M. rubi until after 

 hybernation, 2, 3, or more in one larva (Bignell). 



t Stowell notes (Z00L, p. 7898) that of 36 larvae collected on the cliffs (Isle of 

 Man), on September 26th, 11 were feeding on Lotus corniculatus, 8 on Calluna 

 vulgaris, 5 on Rubus caesius, 3 on Viola canlna, and 2 on Thymus serpyllum. 





