THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 261 



are atrophied, as I never saw the legs move even in the death struggles. 

 How the fertilization of the female is accomplished I am unable to state, 

 but that it must be the act of a moment is evident from the watchfulness 

 of the wasps, who would certainly not permit these buzzing little whirli- 

 gigs to remain more than an instant in contact with their bodies. 



All the males bred by me issued very early in the morning, and most 

 of them before daylight. I do not think its delicate wings and imperfectly 

 chitinized body could support, even for a single minute, the light and heat 

 of the sun. A specimen which I liberated in the day time from the body 

 of a wasp, took flight and escaped at once when the cap of its puparium 

 was pulled off. I found it a few minutes later quite dead on the table a 

 short distance away. 



The species of Xenos bred in Florida from Polistes arnericantis 

 is probably undescribed ; it is smaller and paler than Xe?ios Peckii. The 

 latter is said by Harris to have been " discovered by Prof. Peck in the 

 common brown wasp (Polistes fuscata) of this country." Judging from 

 the numbers of stylopized specimens of this wasp which I have seen it 

 must be far from rare in some colonies. The few specimens of X. Peckii 

 which I have been able to obtain were all extracted from their puparia in 

 the bodies of wasps taken near their nest between the walls of an old 

 building. One specimen which I collected in the Cumberland Mountains 

 of Virginia issued from the body of a Polistes found hiding under bark. 

 I imprisoned the wasp in a glass tumbler, and several days later found 

 the parasite dead and adhering by one wing to the side of the glass. 



A good device for procuring specimens of Xenos from colonies of 

 Polistes known to be infested with the parasite would be to enclose the 

 nest in a box having a false bottom of wire netting through which the 

 males of Xenos would fall as they die, and which would thus prevent the 

 wasps from destroying them. 



Mr. Hubbard stated that he had never seen stylopized wasps of any 

 genus but Polistes. 



Mr. Ashmead stated that they were quite common among the 

 Andrenidye. 



Mr. Riley thought that these parasites could be divided into two 

 classes, those that were carried into the cells by the female wasp, and those 

 that were deposited by the parent of the parasite. 



Mr. Kellicott stated that the case bearer, Thyridopteryx ephemei'ce- 



