136 
Observations on the various Insects 
found enclosed ; and the parent-fly must be endowed with a sur- 
prising intelligence, for, as M. Dagonet justly observes, the deposi- 
tion of the egg " is an operation difficult enough, if one reflect that 
the Ichneumon has not only, like the greater number of the Piipi- 
vorae (or pupae-destroyers), to touch the skin of the larva but 
lightly, on which its progeny must be supported, but it has at first 
to satisfy itself of the exact spot in the stubble where the larva of 
the Cephus is to be found, so that at the same time it pierces the 
stalk it must reach the larva which is to receive its egg." * 
This parasitic fly also belongs to the order hymenoptera, the 
FAMILY iCHNEUMONiDiE, the GENUS PACHYMERUS ; and the spe- 
cies is named calcitrator by Gravenhorst, in his 'Ichneumono- 
logia Europaea.' 
2. P. calcitrator is about the same size as the Cephus; the 
male is black, shining, and pubescent ; the head is somewhat glo- 
bose, but concave at the base ; the eyes are rather small and ovate, 
and there are three minute ocelli on the crown ; the palpi are 
tolerably long and slender ; f the antennae are inserted in front of 
the face, not so long as the body, slightly thickened towards the 
apex, and composed of twenty-two joints, the basal one oval, se- 
cond minute, third elongated, the following decreasing in length, 
each joint producing a bristle on the inside; they are brown, but 
yellow beneath : the thorax is narrow and elongated, the post- 
scutel is narrow and elongated : abdomen somewhat spindle- 
shaped, but clavate, the apex being thickened and compressed ; 
the petiole is long, narrowed, and pitchy, as well as the second 
joint ; the third and fourth are reddish, edged with brown ; the re- 
mainder are brown, edged with white : the wings are ample, trans- 
parent, and iridescent, the stigma and nervures yellowish brown ; 
superior Avithout an areolet, the stigma and marginal cell are 
elongated, the upper discoidal one has a short internal branch : 
legs very slender, excepting the hinder, which are long and stout ; 
they are brown, the four anterior are ochreous on the inside ; pos- 
terior coxae long, their thighs are thick in both sexes ; tibia? 
spurred, hinder long, stoutish, and sometimes inclining to reddish- 
brown, especially at the base ; tarsi five-jointed, claws and pulvjlli 
minute. The female is similar, but the antennae are shorter, and 
not pubescent ; the abdomen is broader, and not compressed ; apex 
of the petiole, as well as the second, third, and fourth segments, 
reddish, the second generally with a brown patch on the back, the 
fifth and following segments are black distinctly edged with white : 
fig. 6, the female ; the cross lines exhibiting the natural dimensions. 
I have taken the female at Coomb Wood, Surrey, and in Dorset- 
shire, resting on gate-posts, in June, and both sexes in hedges, in 
* Notices Entomologiques, p. 40. 
t Curtis's Brit. Ent., fol. 624fl, and pi. 624. 
