THE BURNET ICHNEUMON. 161 
! among the pensiles. This is the pretty little ichneumon which 
is known to entomologists as Microgaster alveariiis. The name 
Microgaster is of Greek origin and signifies ‘little belly/ this 
being a very appropriate name for this insect, whose abdomen 
is of very small dimensions, and indeed appears to be just a 
I little supplementary growth which might be removed without 
causing any inconvenience to the insect. It belongs to the same 
genus as a very common insect called Microgaster g/omeratus, 
which will be duly described when the parasitic animals are 
under consideration. 
With regard to this insect, I have been rather fortunate, 
having found many specimens of the nests, and bred from them 
: several hundred insects. 
Although plentiful enough in certain places, the Burnet 
Ichneumon, as I shall venture to call this species, is very local, 
and while abounding in one place may never be seen in another 
spot at the distance of a very few hundred yards. I give it the 
popular name of Burnet Ichneumon, for the same reason — com- 
paring great things with small — that Cains Martius bore the 
title of Coriolanus and Publius Cornelius Scipio was termed 
Africanus — namely, that it destroys so many Burnet Moths. 
In its perfect state the Ichneumon looks like a rather small 
gnat, and would probably be mistaken for that insect by a non- 
entomological observer. When examined through an ordinary 
magnifying glass, it is seen to possess a wondrous beauty which 
no one could ever suspect when looking at it with the unaided 
eye. The body and head are of a pale yellow colour, except 
the prominent compound eyes, which are dark blackish brown. 
The head is round and rather small, but the thorax is of 
enormous size, quite as proportionately large as the chest of a 
man would be did it project some eighteen inches in front and 
I reach to his heels. 
In singular contrast to the huge thorax is the very tiny abdo- 
men, which is of a retort shape, curved, and fixed in the upper 
surface of the thorax by its smaller end. Indeed, the abdomen 
bears the same relation to the thorax, that the ‘tick’ in the 
capital letter Q does to the whole of the letter. The limbs are 
