NOTES ON METHOCA ICHNEUMONIDES (LATR.). 63
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE.
1. Licea pusilla, group of seven sporangia.
2. ,, immature sporangium, showing smooth thinner
bands where dehiscence would occur later.
3. ,, two mature sporangia, one with reflexed lobes, one
just opening.
4, 5. ,, Portions of peridium lobes, showing arrangement of
peglike teeth along the margins.
6. ,, spores, showing the smooth germination area.
FURTHER NOTES ON METHOCA ICHNEU-
MONIDES (LATR.)
By HUGH MAIN, B.Sc., F.Z.S., F.E.S.
(With One Plate.)
[Read 29th November, 1930.]
SINCE reading my paper on Methoca ichneumonides in
October, 1926,1 I have accumulated a few more observa-
tions and notes on this interesting hymenopteron. As previously
reported, the apterous female Methoca enters the shaft in the
ground in which lives a Tiger Beetle larva and, after stinging it
and so inducing a state of semi-paralysis, lays an egg on the ventral
surface of the larva's abdomen; this process is repeated with
a number of larvae. When the egg hatches the resulting Methoca
larva absorbs the fluid portion of the host till it attains its full
growth, when it spins a cocoon in which to complete its meta-
morphosis.
Two cocoons which I had obtained, and which were referred
to in my former paper, unfortunately yielded no results in the
following year, and when opened for examination showed only
the dried remains of the larvae.
I surmised that the failure was due to the difficulty of pre-
venting the larva; in the cocoons from drying up in the form of
subterrarium employed, during the long period of about nine
months before the appearance of the imagines. In order to
obviate this, I devised a modification of the apparatus, by which
the sand surrounding the cocoons could be maintained in a
damp condition for any length of time with the minimum of
attention.
1 Essex Naturalist, vol. xxii, pp. 1-5.