(The |)oimg Matuntlist : 



A Penny Weekly Magazine of Natural History. 



No. 40. JULY 31st, 1880. Vol. 1. 



BUTTERFLY PARASITES. 



WHEN we announced on 10th 

 January last, our intention to 

 give an account of the parasites that 

 infest the larvae of our Buttertiies our 

 own knowledge on the subject was so 

 very limited that we stated we only 

 knew three ichneumons, which preyed 

 on two butterflies ; and one dipteron, 

 which attacked at least two different 

 species. A gentleman with much more 

 knowledge of ichneumons than we had, 

 told us what we proposed was really 

 not worth doing. He only knew three 

 ichneumons on Butterfly larvas. In- 

 formation however began to reach us 

 as soon as our request for it was in the 

 hands of our readers, and we have 

 already been able to figure five Hy- 

 menopterous and one Dipterus Para- 

 sites on five of the nine Butterflies 

 given in the first four plates that 

 illustrated our papers. Mr. Mathew 

 also announced ( see No. 36) that he had 

 bred a fly from his Daplidice larvse as 

 well as the ichneumon Mr. Bignell 

 had bred from the same batch, and 

 which is figured on plate 4. Mr. 

 Mathew, however, did not preserve a 

 specimen, so that for the present it 

 cannot be named. YVe have therefore 



already been able to give an 

 account of double the numbor of 

 Parasites we were acquainted with 

 when we begun, though as yet we 

 have scarcely got through an eighth 

 of our Butterflies. But by the com- 

 munications that are contit — lly reach- 

 ing us, it is evident that we have 

 opened ap a mine, the wealth of which 

 seems very much greater than any one 

 could have anticipated. But while 

 much information of a satisfactory 

 nature is reaching us — specimeiib both 

 of ichneumons and diptera, with par- 

 ticulars of the species they infest, we 

 are also beginning to find out how 

 much more there is to learn. In No. 

 12 a paragraph was translated from 

 Feuille ties Jennes Naturalistes, giving 

 an account of some species of ichneu- 

 mon coming in large numbers from the 

 pupa of Vanessa urticai. This brought 

 a note from Mr. G. T. Porritt, F.L.S., 

 that he had once noticed some 

 thousands of a small ichneumon emerge 

 from a large quantity of the pupae of 

 the same species. No one else seems 

 to have noticed this, and as V. tirticm is 

 very common, and will be going into 

 pupa now, we shall be glad if those 

 who have the species will observe them 



