THE EP HI ALTER. 
1 9 I 
ing the ovipositor beneath, and plunges the point within a narrow 
fissure, so that it reaches the larva, which is grubbing away, in 
apparent safety, at the rotten wood. When the stroke is given, the 
valves of the ovipositor separate, and curve, so that the thrust, 
when it overcomes the resistance of the wood, penetrates far inside. 
In the engraving, which is, of course, a diagram, this operation is 
shown, the wood being removed over the larva. The curve of 
the ovipositor beneath the abdomen is apparent. All this is very 
surprising, for the active insect manages to discover the deeply 
secreted larva, which it cannot see, and to find out a convenient 
fissure in the wood down which to thurst its ovipositor with 
certain effect. 
The Rhyssa persuasoria has the same habits as the Ephialtes , 
and is a much prettier insect, being marked with little spots, or 
lines of a yellow colour. 
The Ophionidce are Ichneumons , which can be distinguished at 
once by the peculiar shape of the abdomen, for it is bent, and 
compressed, literally like a sickle. They have a small ovipositor, 
and deposit their eggs either within caterpillars that feed on 
leaves in broad daylight and are unsheltered, or upon their skins. 
The eggs are somewhat remarkable, and have been carefully 
examined. They are oblong, and have a long and twisted 
peduncle, and this is fixed on to the skin of the victim. The 
young larva, on being hatched, breaks its egg shell on the side 
remote from the peduncle, allows its body still to remain within 
the pedunculated shell, and thus attacks the caterpillar in safety. 
Sometimes the female misses the caterpillar, and the egg sticks 
on her own body, so that when the larva is born it at once attacks 
its own parent. Most of these kinds are large insects, and Ophion 
luteus is very common in Europe. 
The Bracojiidce are a very large tribe, and are the commonest 
of the parasitic Ichneumonidce. They multiply at a great rate, and 
most of them are very small indeed. Many of them frequent 
flowers during fine weather, and are enemies of the beetles, and 
the species of the genus Alysia are parasitic upon the great family 
of the flies Muscidce . 
The Microgasters belong to a group which differs from that 
of the Braconites , and are very small insects, being about the 
