110 



Observations on the various Insects 



has been named by Guerin Limosina Payenii,* and it is not im- 

 probable that it may be the male of Macquart's species, for it 

 agrees very well with our female, except in the colour of the 

 wings and the structure of the hinder feet. 



With the foregoing Diptera I often bred a parasitic insect in 

 considerable numbers, but to which it is attached, or whether to 

 any of them, I am unable to ascertain. It belongs to the Order 

 Hymenoptera, the Family Proctotrupid^:, and the Genus 

 Cerapsilon, which has been divided by Mr. Westwood into 3 

 Genera, one of which is called Paramesius,^ and to that section 

 our insect belongs. It is included by Nees ab Esenbeck in the 

 Genus Diapria, and has been named by him 



38. P. brachialis.J The Male is scarcely 1 line long, and ex- 

 pands 1|; it is very glossy black ; the head is globose ; the face 

 short ovate, and at the bottom are attached the antennae, which 

 are nearly as long as the body, ferruginous, and 14-jointed, basal 

 joint long, 2nd short, obovate, 3rd notched or comma-shaped,, 

 remainder short and obovate, apical joint conical ; eyes small, 

 lateral, with 3 ocelli on the crown in a triangle : thorax very 

 globose, scarcely larger than the head : scutel small, semi-oval, 

 deeply hollowed at the base ; metathorax ferruginous and uneven ; 

 petiole forming a ferruginous knob, woolly behind : abdomen 

 small, ovate-conic, pitchy, base ferruginous, with 4 longitudinal 

 channels on a very large segment, apical segment very short : 4 

 wings dusky and pubescent, with a few nervures at the base of 

 the superior, forming an elongated ceil : 6 legs short, slender, 

 and ochreous, pitchy at the base ; thighs thickened, as well as the 

 anterior shanks, and pitchy at the middle ; feet slender, 5-jointed,. 

 tips dusky. Female above 1 line long, and expanding If : this 

 sex is not only distinguished by its larger size, but the horns are 

 shorter, with only 12 joints, the 3rd being simple like the 2nd; 

 and the extremity of the abdomen is acuminated, and very 

 acute. 



This insect belongs to a family which is very serviceable in 

 keeping down wireworms and other subterranean larvae, as will 

 be seen by a reference to a former volume § and the ' Gardeners* 

 Chronicle.' || Nees also says that the Diapria? breed in the sub- 

 terranean larvae of Tipulce, or Gnats. 



I must not omit to record another fly called Dilophus febrilis y 

 which is exceedingly abundant every year, the larvae causing 



* Bull, des Seances de la Soc. Roy. et Cent. d'Agric, vol. v. pi. 6, f. 4. 



f Curtis's Guide, Genus 571. 



% Hymenop. Ichn. Affin. Mon., vol. ii. p. 333. 



§ Journal of Royal Agric. Soc, vol. v. p. 225, pi. J. figs. 46 and 47, the 

 pupa, I expect, of a Proctotrupes. 



|| Vol. vi. p. 36, Proctotrupes Viator. 



