192 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



did not give his few words in the generic table to Riley a as a new genus, 

 his mention of it there amounts simply to the mention of a manuscript 

 name, and as the full description of Rileya Ashmead as a new genus w r as 

 not published for some days subsequent to the publication of my genus, 

 the latter should bear the name. Were this a mere matter of credit for a 

 genus, I would not waste words upon it, and were it any other name I 

 would give way without hesitation to my friend Mr. Ashmead, but my 

 desire to establish the genus in Professor Riley's name, and to apply it to 

 this extremely interesting and beautiful form, is so great that I am led to 

 assert my claim, which of course will stand or fall upon its merits. 



The original paper as read before the Entomological Society ot Wash- 

 ington, June 7, is as follows : — 



" One of the most beautiful insects I have ever seen was sent in con- 

 siderable numbers to Dr. Riley, from California, by Mr. Koebele, in 1886. 

 It was captured by Mr. Koebele, as stated in his notes, while searching 

 for a species of Dactylopius, which lives upon the Passion Flower at Los 

 Angeles. His account of the actions of the little parasites upon this plant 

 is interesting enough to quote : ' A number of the parasites were collected 

 on a plant, and some of them were noticed depositing their eggs. Busily 

 they ran up and down the branches, and if they met with a grown 

 insect, this was touched from behind with their antennae from five to 

 fifteen seconds ; then either the parasite would run off or turn around and 

 thrust an egg into the insect, which, when the parasite approaches, keeps 

 perfectly quiet ; but if operated on, will turn the posterior part-of its body 

 rapidly around in a circle, and its enemy will, after the egg is left, walk 

 quietly off without facing its victim again.' 



" This little parasite, although only about a millimeter and a-half in 

 length, is a perfect gem in color, it is a fleck of brilliant green-gold, and 

 its structure is very strange to one not familiar with the peculiar group of 

 genera to which it belongs. The remarkable antennae, with their concave 

 leaf-like scape, peculiar pedicel, and broadly flattened flagellum carry to 

 an extreme a conformation seen only with the three genera — Mira, Anusia 

 and Cerapterocerus — of the sub-family Encyrtince of the C/ialcididce. 1 

 have always supposed that the preliminary tapping of a Bark-louse, with 

 the antennae, as described by Mr. Koebele above, and as often noticed 

 with other parasites, was for the purpose of ascertaining by a tactile sens*,- 



