98 



THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



winter is passed in the egg stage which appears to be little affected by freezing, 

 and the larvae cannot be drowned, even with excessive irrigation. 



Although the species occurs throughout the Great Basin region of the 

 United States, in which it is recorded from five States, it has never appeared 

 there in destructive numbers. Recently it has increased in Montana to an alarm- 

 ing extent. 



In the Montana Agricultural Station Circular No. 94. (1920) the state- 

 ment is made that the "pale western cutworm, remaining as it does below the sur- 

 face of the ground, is protected from the attacks of parasitic insects." The ab- 

 sence of parasites in this species in Montana has been commented upon in cor- 

 respondence to the writer both by Profes.sor Cooley, and Mr. J. R. Parker. 



This condition is very much at variance with that experienced in Alberta, 

 where parasites are of great importance, and significance. We are able, in most 

 seasons, to predict the severity of outbreaks by a study of the parasite conditions 

 ui the previous year in infested districts. Extensive notes have been made on 

 the biology of several of these parasites, but they are still too incomplete for pub- 

 lication. 



The following species have been bred in considerable numbers : — 



Ihe figures given for Hymenoptera are those obtained by dissection, as 

 are those for Tachinids other than in the years 1914 and 1915. During these 

 years full grown larvae were placed in breeding cages in June and records were 

 kept of the adult moths and parasites that emerged in the fall and following 

 Spring. From the low numbers of cutworms accounted for in these breeding 

 cages,— 52% and ?>?>% respectively,— it can be assumed that the actual parasitism 

 was considerably higher than the figures indicate. 



Other species bred in small numbers are:—Peletcria robusta, Wied. 1913 

 and Brnestia radiciim Fab. 1916. Both are Tachinids. 



The habits of the more imj)ortant parasites are briefly as follov/s: — 



