THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 115 



measure a scant .13 of an inch in length. The ovipositor is exserted in 

 one case .11, and in two cases .12 of an inch. Length of wing .14 of an 

 inch ; length of antennae .125 of an inch. The breadth of the head, as 

 compared to riifiis, is as five to six. 



In the eleven specimens of rufjts now in my collection the ocelli are 

 in every case distinctly separated. In five cases the antennae are 32- 

 jointed ; in four cases they are 31-jointed, and in two cases they are 30- 

 jointed. All are females, and in no case do they vary much from .15 of 

 an inch in length. The shortest measurement of exserted ovipositor is 

 .14, the average is .18, and the longest is .20 of an inch in length. The 

 breadth of the abdomen, as compared to curculionis, is in the proportion 

 of four to five. Length of wing .15 of an inch ; length of antennae .15 of 

 an inch. Rufus is decidedly more robust and larger in every case than 

 curculionis^ and, were it not for the fact that so eminent an authority as 

 Dr. Riley considered them the same species, I should think that rufus 

 ought to be raised to the rank of a species. 



Sigalphus canadensis. — Three specimens of S. canadensis were reared 

 by me the past summer from the plum gouger Anthonomus scutellatus 

 (prunicida). How this little braconid can deposit her egg within the hard 

 pit of the plum, I am unable to say. It can not be that it is deposited 

 there before the pit becomes hard, for the larva of the gouger does not get 

 entirely through the pit until the latter becomes very hard, and the para- 

 site does not attack the larva of the gouger in time to prevent its complete 

 development and pupation, as was found by cutting into the plums con- 

 taining parasitized pupae of Anthonomus scutellatus. When the larva of the 

 gouger becomes full grown it gnaws a hole through the pit, out of which 

 it can escape when it has changed to a beetle, and the parasite is de- 

 pendent upon this provision of the larval gouger for its own escape. 

 Possibly the parasite does not deposit the egg until the opening has been 

 made in the pit ; but, if this is the case, it must go through its transform- 

 ations in a very short time. And how would the female know at what 

 part of the plum to insert her ovipositor to strike the small opening in the 

 pit ? Although but three of these parasites were secured, it was not un- 

 common to find a plum with a small exit, such as is made by the mature 

 parasite in escaping, and which is much too small for the exit of the 

 gouger. 



