112 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [March, '09 



The experiment of leaving the dead aphid on its back was 

 tried, and the parasitic larva allowed to produce the usual rent 

 in the host while in this unlocked for position. The larva did 

 not quit its home, but made desperate efforts to reach some- 

 thing tangible and which it clearly expected to find. Failing 

 in this it smeared the edges of the torn opening with a pro- 

 fuse supply of silk, but was helpless to adapt itself to the ab- 

 normal condition. When finally inverted it rapidly attached 

 the host body to the glass and closed itself in as usual. 



Rhopalosiphum persicae was observed to anchor itself, when 

 parasitized, in precisely the same manner as Aphis brassicae, 

 the body of the host being torn and immediately fastened to 

 the glass by silken threads spun by the larvae. 



Mr. E. G. Kelly, of the Bureau of Entomology, has ascer- 

 tained that the individuals of the well-known, potentially pestif- 

 erous To.ropicra graminum when parasitized by Lysiphlebns, 

 are attached in exactly the same manner by the parasitic larvae 

 to the food plant, after the host has died a miserable and linger- 

 ing death. 



The above facts seem to be true only of Braconid parasites 

 of aphids. Lack of material has prevented the acquirement 

 of further knowledge concerning Chalcid, Cynipid or other 

 parasites of plant lice, especially their mode of attaching the 

 host to the plant. Larvae like those of Aphelinus, that do not 

 alter the shape of the host when they produce its death, pos- 

 sibly trust to the death grip of the host's claws, or they may 

 gum the ventral wall of the dead host to the leaf by a fluid 

 forced through the body pores. At all events, an Aphelinus- 

 parasitized aphid has a whole skin, apparently, and yet seems 

 to be slightly glued to the host plant at death. 



MR. HENRY L. VIERECK has left Detroit, Mich., and is now at the 

 Bureau of Entomology, Washington. D. C. 



PREOCCUPIED GENERA IN LEPIDOPTERA. Pronuba Riley, being preoccu- 

 pied by Megerlc in the mollusks, and by Thomson in the Coleoptera, I 

 here propose for it the name Valentinia, in memory of our illustrious 

 and lamented entomologist. Dryoperia nov. nom. for Dryope Chambers, 

 preoccupied by Dryope Desv., and Dryope Bate, the former in the 

 Diptera and the latter in the Crustacea. KARL R. COOLIDGE. 



