THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 31 



A slight cocoon was formed by drawing together two leaves of thorn, to 

 one end of which the larva attached itself by a few threads of silk. Length 

 of pupa W of an inch : greatest breadth £ of an inch; the colour at first light 

 reddish brown, becoming dark on the 4th or 5th day, the whole covered with 

 a plum-like bloom ; the tongue and wing cases very clearly defined; head 

 case blunt; the imago was produced July 29, after about 21 days; its alar 

 expansion was 1-^ inch. 



As far as 1 can ascertain this is the first time this larva has been described. 

 I have taken it before but failed to describe or rear it. 



THE IMPORTED CURRANT WORM FLY (Nemaius ventricosus, 

 King.) AND ITS PARASITE (Hemiteles nemativorus, Walsh). 



BY BEXJ. D. WALSH, M.A. 



I wish to correct a few mistakes which I have made in the paper on this 

 subject, which was published in the Entomologist, Vol. II., No. 2. 



1st. I have said that " not a single American species of Hemiteles, so far 

 as I am aware, has as yet been described under that generic name as occurring 

 north of the West India Islands." This is incorrect. Mr. Riley, in his 

 Missouri Report, has described two species, viz., H. thyridopteryx % 9, and 

 H. Crcssonii % , as found in his State. 



2nd. In H. thyridopteryx, Riley — in which I have now seen Mr. Riley's 

 own specimens % 9 — the metathorax of 9 is strongly thorned, while that 

 of % is unarmed. It is the same with H. inrertus, Cresson, though I had 

 overlooked the fact from Mr. Cresson's diagnosis giving the thorns as Sisjiecific, 

 and not as a sexual 9 character. These two are the only described N. A. 

 Hemiteles, where both sexes are known, and the 9 has thorns on the meta- 

 thorax : and there is no described % that has these thorns, though I have 

 one such % in my collection. Moreover, in Gravenhorst's genus Hoplis- 

 menus, which scarcely differs from Cryptus, except by the presence of these 

 thorns, the % % , according to Brulle, have the metathorax unarmed, while 

 that of 9 is strongly thorned {Hymen. IV. p. 186). Consequently we may 

 infer, with a reasonable degree of probability, that in Hemiteles these thorns 

 very frequently, but not always, form a sexual character peculiar to 9 • This 

 is a remarkable and somewhat anomalous fact, because in Ichneumon morulas, 

 Say, the 9 only of which is described by Say, but of which I possess two % , 

 I find that the metathoracic thorns are equally well developed in either sex. 



3rd. In 27. thyridopteryx, Riley, the 9 has the front wings bifasciate 

 with fuscous, and the % has them hyaline. In H. incertus Cresson, the 

 front wings of 9 are fuscous, and those of % hyaline bifasciate with fuscous. 

 And there is no other described N. A. % with fasciate or bifasciate wings, 



