THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 293 



BIOSTERES RHAGOLETIS RICHMOND, sp.n.,A PARASITE 

 OF RHAGOLETIS POMONELLA WALSH.* 



BY WILLIAM COLCORD WOODS, ORONO, MAINEi. 



During the summer of 1913 the writer was engaged in study- 

 ing blueberry insects in Washington County, Maine. A maggot 

 was found infesting the berries, which when bred proved to be 

 Rhagohtis pomonella Walsh, the apple maggot or railroad worm 

 (Journal of Economic Entomology, 1914, Vol. VII, pp. 398-399). 

 There were also obtained from larvae of this species collected at 

 Cherry field, Maine, in August and September, 1913, twenty-one 

 specimens of a parasite, which emerged- from puparia kept under 

 laboratory conditions, at various dates between February 25 and 

 April 21, 1914. 



Since no parasite has been recorded from Rhagoletis pomonella 

 Walsh, this note accompanied by the plate should be of interest. 

 The figures represent, enlarged, an adult, and the fore and hind 

 wings. 



This species belongs to the family BraconidcB and to the sub- 

 family Opiuice. In this same group are placed many of the para- 

 sites, including one of this genus, which are recorded by Silvestri 

 as bred from various fruit-flies (Bulletin 3, Hawaii Board of 

 Agriculture and Forestry, 1914). 



Specimens of this species were swept on the blueberry barrens 

 of Washington County last summer, where apparently they had 

 considerably reduced the number of the maggots as compared with 

 the preceding season. Unfortunately all the puparia which I 

 collected during the summer of 1914 were destroyed so that 

 neither parasites nor flies emerged, but I hope to make further 

 collections this present year. I have not observed oviposition, 

 but this species is undoubtedly a larval parasite, although the 

 adults do not emerge until after the puparia have been formed. 



Dr. H. H. P. Severin has this year bred the same species from 

 puparia of Rhagoletis pomonella Walsh, obtained either from the 



^Papers from the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station. Entomology 

 No. 80. 



September, 1915 



