OF WASHINGTON, VOLUME XV, 1913. 95 



position on the side of the egg, and partly upon the egg next to it, 

 and suddenly dropping the tip of the abdomen, forces the ovipositor 

 into it. During the egg-laying process she keeps up a slight pulsat- 

 ing movement of the body and vibrating motion of her antennse, 

 while some of her legs also are in motion. After a short time she 

 withdraws the ovipositor and with it apparently scratches the sur- 

 face of the shell. She then moves away and cleans herself ; first the 

 antennse, by rapidly brushing the forelegs over them, then the fore 

 legs and middle legs, by passing them through her mouth. She 

 cleans her wings and abdomen with the hind legs. After this pro- 

 cess is completed the female begins to examine the eggs again for a 

 suitable one in which to oviposit and in doing this she may select 

 the first or reject several. The time consumed in the deposition of 

 an egg was observed to vary from 2| minutes to 8-f minutes and for 

 six eggs averaged 5| minutes, while the interval between oviposition 

 was observed to vary from 15 seconds to 12 minutes. As this in- 

 sect develops in the host egg the latter changes from a pearly white 

 to a dull black. This same result is produced by each of the other 

 three parasitic species, and a few days after the eggs are parasi- 

 tized these may be easily separated from the healthy eggs. When 

 the parasite is mature, it chips away the eggshell of its host, making 

 a hole nearly one-half the diameter of the egg, and through this it 

 emerges. 



Trichogramma minutum is a very tiny, yellow creature with red 

 eyes and is not half so large as Telenomus sphingis. The parasitism 

 by this insect was not very extensive in the number of eggs destroyed, 

 possibly owing to the fact that generally several eggs are laid in 

 each egg of the host, and also to the fact that this parasite has so 

 many other hosts. 1 The writer has reared it from the eggs, of Cal- 

 podes eihlius Cram, in Florida, and in southern California from the 

 eggs of Peridroma magaritosa Haw., Phlyctcenia ferrugalis Huebn., 

 Dione vanillce L., and Tortrix sp. This insect develops rapidly 

 and when ready to emerge from eggs of Datana integerrima one of 

 the inclosed parasites cuts a small circular hole not over one-fourth 

 the diameter of the egg. This may be on the top or down on the 

 sides, and in a few cases two holes may be found in one egg. As 

 soon as the hole is large enough the insect works its head through, 

 the forelegs follow, and in a short time it pulls itself free. Im- 

 mediately another of the parasites appears at the hole and works 

 its way out and so on until all have emerged. In one of the two 

 cases in which the entire process was observed, 4 parasites emerged 

 from the single egg, and in the other 5 emerged. 



Next to Telenomus sphingis the most important of the egg-para- 



records 45 species belonging to 4 orders as hosts of this insect. 

 Bui. Wise. Soc. Nat, Hist., vol. ix, No. 4, p. 161, October, 1911. 



