Walker : On Ichneumonid^. 



99 



The pupse of ichneumons vary but little from those of other hymen- 

 opterous insects, resembling the imagines, but the limbs and other 

 members of the body are held down by a tightly stretched membrane. 

 Those species with an exserted ovipositor have that instrument bent 

 over the back.^^ 



Shortly the time arrives when the listless, mummy-like creature 

 awakes from its inactive rest, and bursting the slender membrane that 

 has kept it prisoner, unfolds its wings to the breeze ; and stopping 

 now and again to plunder a flower of its treasured sweets, seeks its 

 mate, and then its victim. Though a merciless enemy to its weaker 

 and defenceless brethren, it but obeys the instinct given it from its 

 birth. 



Thus far, I have said nothing about the food of the perfect ichneu- 

 mon. This generally consists of the saccharine matter contained in 

 flowers, for the insect has now renounced all its former carnivorous 

 propensities. Cases have occurred in which ichneumons have devoured 

 the caterpillars of small Lepidoptera, and one has been seen devouring 

 a leaf -rolling larva, which it cleverly evicted from its tenement by 

 pricking it with its terebra. I find that ichneumons in captivity have 

 a great weakness for honey, and I am in the habit of feeding many 

 Hymenoptera with that substance. A day or two ago, I placed a small 

 quantity in a box with an ichneumon, and left the latter deeply 

 engaged in discussing the merits of its mellifluous feast. Late in the 

 evening of the same day, I found that gentleman lying on his back, 

 quite helpless. When I next looked at him, which was on the 

 following morning, he had found out that he was the possessor of legs, 

 and was balanced on four of them. But as those otherwise useful 

 members were a little crazy about the joints, he had secured additional 

 support by propping himself up against the side of the box, and 

 evidently regarded that individual side with as much affection as a 

 tipsy man exhibits for a friendly lamp-post. 



A word or two in closing. The science of Entomology is progressing 

 steadily onward, yet the lepidopterist of the present day looks back 

 with regret and sorrow to the time when insects that are now either 

 extinct in this country, or of casual occurrence, were captured in some 

 plenty. The massacre of Polyommatus Hippothoe and Papilio MacJiaon 

 has rendered the first extinct, and the second a desideratum with many. 

 When we couple with this the slow and sure encroachments of drainage 



1 3 See commxmication by Mr. G. C. Bignell in the Entomologist Vol. 13, p. 244, 



