568 
AETICULATA. 
burrows of tlie wood-boring insects, whose larvae tbey are enabled to reacb by means of tbis 
organ. Each species usually infests a particular species of insect ; and, singular as it may appear, 
many of these parasitic larvaj are 
again preyed upon by others, 
whose parents are directed by an 
unerring instinct to the selection 
of the proper position for the 
nourishment of their offspring. 
Many of them, and especially 
the larger species, only lay a sin- 
gle egg in their victim ; but the 
larvae of many of the smaller 
species exist in familcs of a hun- 
dred, or even more, in the bodies 
of caterpillars and other insects. 
The species of Ichneumon-Fly are 
exceedingly numerous, in most 
parts of the world ; the largest in 
the United States is the Pimpla 
lunator, popularly called Long- 
stinger : the body of this is an inch and a half long, and the ovipositor three inches. 
One species of Cuckoo-Fly, the Chrysis ignita^ well known in Europe under the name of Ruhy- 
Tail, generally exhibits a gem-like brilliancy of color, the thorax being usually of a fine metallic 
blue or green, and the abdomen of a most splendid ruby color. They are mostly of small size, 
and may be seen, in the hottest sunshine of summer, running about upon walls, palings, and 
sand-banks, in search of the nests of wild bees and other hymenopterous insects, upon which 
their larvse are parasitic. Mr. Westwood observes that they deserve the name of Cuchoo- Flies 
more than any other parasitic insects, as it appears that in most cases their larva? feed rather 
upon the store of food laid up for the nourishment of their host than upon the host itself, although 
they doubtless finish by devouring the rightful inhabitant of their usurped domicile. 
ICHNEUMON MANIPESTATOK. 
GALL INSECTS. 
THE GALLICOLA. 
This term, from the Latin galla, the oak-apple, and colo, to inhabit, is applied to a tribe of 
insects which are almost exclusively vegetable feeders, and includes the well-known Gall-In- 
