STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 253 



are more or less dead. As these have passed from the pupa state it is 

 evident they have not been attacked by a second parasite. The question 

 then arises, Have they failed to perfect their organization and to acquire 

 sufficient strength to cut their way out for want of sufficient food? 



Judging from Mr. C'urtis's observations this would seem to be 

 impossible, but we must bear in mind the fact that his statements apply 

 to the larger chrysalis of Pieris brassiccE. 



These little parasites, as may be inferred from what has been stated, 

 undergo their transformations in the body of the chrysalid or pupa; the 

 perfect flies coming out of the summer brood in about two weeks ; but 

 those in the fall brood do not make their appearance until the following 

 spring. 



Their multiplication is so rapid that when they make their appear- 

 ance early in the season where the butterflies prevail it will be found 

 that the larger portion of the fall pupse are parasitized. Dr. Packard 

 states that out of one hundred and ten chrysalids handed him by Mr. 

 Putnam, in September (1876), all but two were infested. The infested 

 specimens I have examined were obtained chiefly in the northern part of 

 the State, and selected because they were parasitized, hence I am unable 

 to state the proportion. Although the parasite has made its appearance 

 in my immediate section, it came too late to affect any but the last brood 

 of the past season. 



The infested chrysalids of the butterfly may easily be distinguished by 

 the livid and otherwise discolored and diseased appearance of the body. 



I do not know that these parasites select any particular point of the 

 chrysalis shell at which to make their escape, but in those I have observed 

 the place of exit appears to have been generally at or near the point 

 where the abdomen joins the thorax. 



In Europe there is a small chalcid species, Microgaster glomeratiis, 

 Linn., which attacks the caterpillar,. depositing thirty or more eggs in its 

 body ; the maggots hatched from these feed internally upon the worm, 

 weakening it, but not destroying its life, until they are ready to transform 

 into pupae ; then it dies, and they, yet in the larval state, make their way 

 through the skin and spin little elongate-oval silken cocoons, in masses, 

 beneath and around it. 



Although this species, so far as I am aware, has not yet been observed 

 infesting these cabbage-worms in this country, yet cocoons somewhat 

 similar to those made by it have been found about the caterpillars of 

 p. rapcB. I insert here a description of it copied from Curtis : 



It is black and thickly punctured ; the horns are thread-like, longer than the body 

 in the male, shorter in the female, and composed of eighteen joints or upward ; the 

 eyes are lateral, with three little eyes or ocelli upon the crown; the abdomen is shorter 

 than the thorax, depressed, linear, smooth and shining; the basal segment is a little nar- 

 rowed, with the edges on the sides dirty white ; ovipositor concealed beneath the abdo- 

 men; the four wings are very transparent, iridescent, with a distinct pitchy-colored 

 stigma on the superior; the nervures lighter, the areolet open externally; legs bright 

 ochreous, hinder thighs black on the upper edge, darkest at the apex, tips of their shanks 

 and tarsi brownish, the apex only of the four anterior brown ; length, a little more than 

 one line; expanse, 2^ lines. 



