124 PROC. ENT. SOC. WASH., VOL,. 21, NO. 6, JUNE, 1919 



Mr. J. D. Riggs took an adult from a yellow pine (P. ponder osa) 

 at Bray, Calif., on May 6, 1915, and Mr. F. B. Herbert made the 

 following observations: August 13, 1915, adults in cocoons in 

 the wood of the red fir (Abies magnified) at the Pyramid Ranger 

 Station; August 30, an adult from the cell of Trachykele nimbosa 

 Fall in the wood of red fir at Meyers Station, Calif.; July 3, 1916, 

 adults under the bark of a Jeffrey pine in the gallery of Dendroc- 

 tomis jeffreyi; August 18, an adult in the wood of a lodgepole pine 

 (P. murrayana) and a cocoon in the pupal cell of a Cerambycid. 

 An adult Deretaphrus emerged from this cocoon on June 21, 1917. 



These records indicate that this species inhabits a number 

 of host trees and lives on a number of insect hosts. Also, that 

 it lives over one winter as an adult in the cocoon and probably 

 follows its hosts in having a two or more year life cycle. 



At first sight the larva resembles an Ichneumonid larva, having 

 a whitish fleshy body which tapers forward to the rather small 

 head of the same color. Closer examinations shows that it has 

 all f of the characteristics of the typical Colydiid larva including 

 well developed legs and a pair of recurved caudal hooks. The 

 cocoon is an elongate hemisphere in shape. The flat side is 

 fastened to the rounded ones with a heavy seam or rim and con- 

 tains a number of threads woven in the tissue. The rounded 

 sides do not have the threads but are composed of a brownish 

 celluloid like substance. 



NOTES ON THE CALIFORNIA OAK WORM, PHRYGANIDIA 

 CALIFORNICA. (LEPID.) 



BY H. E. BURKE, U. S. Bureau of Entomology. 



Under the title "The Imprudent Phryganidian," Prof. Vernon 

 L. Kellogg published in the Entomological News for June, 1896, 

 an interesting account of how the mother moths of the fall genera- 

 tion of this species doom many of their offspring to death by 

 starvation because they lay part of their eggs on the leaves of 

 the deciduous oaks which will soon fall and become unfit for 

 food. Other eggs are laid on the live oak (Quercus agrifolia) 

 and the species thus survives the winter. 



Observations made at the Forest Insect Laboratory, Los 

 Gatos, during the past two winters indicate that the laying of 

 the eggs on the deciduous oaks may not be such an imprudence 

 as at first sight it seems. 



Both of these winters, due to different climatic conditions, 

 numerous young caterpillars wintered over on the deciduous 

 white oak (Quercus lobata) and produced normal broods of moths. 

 In fact, at Los Gatos, the species appeared to winter better on 

 the white oaks than it did on the live oaks. 



