Feb., '05] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 43 



On the Habits of Two Ichneumonid Parasites of the 

 Bee Ceratina Dupla Say. 



BY S. GRAENICHER, Milwaukee, Wis. 



During the summer of 1903 eggs and larvae of an Ichneu- 

 monid were noticed in several nests of Ceratina dupla, a rather 

 common bee in our region. I was thus enabled to study the 

 life history of this parasite, and to obtain a number of mature 

 insects, the latter emerging in the spring of the following year. 

 L/ast summer while examining some nests of Ceratina dupla in 

 search of additional material, a second Ichneumonid was found 

 passing its larval stage in the nest of the bee, and of this spec- 

 ies also mature insects were bred. These two Ichneumonids 

 were sent to Mr. Henry L,. Viereck, of Philadelphia, for identifi- 

 cation, with the result that one of them was recognized as 

 Grotea angiiiua Cress., while the other proved to be a new 

 species, which Mr. Yiereck has named and described as Hab- 

 rocrvptns gm-nichcri (ENT. NEWS, Vol. XV, p. 333.) My 

 sincere thanks are due to Mr. Viereck for his kind assistance 

 in this matter. 



To my knowledge no Ichneumonida- have as yet been 

 reported from the nests of bees. Besides, one of the parasites 

 under consideration, Grotea anguina, is still the more remark- 

 able from the fact that its larva, during a certain period of its 

 development, leads the life of a vegetarian, subsisting for a few 

 days on the mixture of pollen and nectar, the so-called bee- 

 bread stored away by the bee. In regard to the habits of the 

 Ichneumonidse, Sharp (The Cambridge Natural History, Vol. 

 V, p. 557, 1895) makes the following statement : 'Although 

 the Ichneumonidae are perhaps the most purely carnivorous of 

 all the great families 'of Hymenoptera, there is nevertheless 

 reason for supposing that some of them can be nourished with 

 vegetable substances during a part at any rate of the larval 

 existence, Giraud & Cameron (Ent. Month. Mag. XIII, 1879, 

 p. 200) having recorded observations that lead to the conclu- 

 sion that sonic species of the genus Pinipla may inhabit galls 

 and live on the substance, or juices thereof." It is interesting 

 to note that our species Grotca au^iihia, whose larva during a 



