STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. I07 



reading, omit the technical description which follows, and will only state 

 that it differs from the otlier species in its reddish-brown abdomen, as 

 well as in form, as may be readily seen by refen-ing to the ligures (Fig. 

 6, a female; b male; c antenna). 



PoRizoN coxoTRACHELi, N. Sp. ITcad pitchy-black, opaque, the ocelli 

 triano-ularlv placed and close together; eyes oval, polished, and black; face covered 

 with a silverv-white pubescence; labrum rufous, with yellowish hairs; mandibles 

 and palpi pale yellowish-brown; antenna; inserted in depressions between the eyes, 

 reachini^ to metathorax when turned back, filiform, 24-jointed; black with basal 

 joints 6-— I becoming more and more rufous, the bulbus always distinctly rufous; 

 bulbus rather longer and twice as thick as joint 3; joint 2 about one-third as long. 

 Thorax pitchy-black, opaque, the sides slightly pubescent with whitish hairs, the 

 mesothorax rounded and bulging anteriorly, the scutellum slightly excavated and 

 sharplv defined by a carina each side; metathorax with the elevated lines well 

 defined and running parallel and close together from scutellum to about one-fourth 

 their length, then suddenly diverging and each forking about the middle. Abdoinen 

 glabrous, polished, very slender at base, gradually broader and much compressed 

 from the sides at the apex which is truncated; peduncle uniform in diameter and 

 as long as joints 2 and 3 together; joints 2 — 5 subequal in length; color rufous with 

 the peduncle wholly, dorsum of joint 3, a lateral shade on joint 3, and more or less 

 of the two apical joints superiorly, especially at their anterior edges, black; venter 

 more yellowish: ovipositor about as long as abdomen, porrect when in use, curved 

 upwards when at rest, rufous, with the sheaths longer and black. Lr^s, including 

 trochanters and coxie uniformly pale yellowish-brown with the tips of tarsi dusky. 

 Wings subhvaline and iridescent, wilh veins and stigma dark brown, the stigma 

 quite large, "and the two discoidal cells subequal and, as usual in this genus, joining 

 end to end, but with the upper veins which separate them from the radial cell, 

 slightly elbowed instead of being straight, thus giving the radial cell a quadrangular 

 rather than a triangular appearance. Male difiers from female only in his some- 

 what smaller size and unarmed abdomen. Expanse female 0.32 inch, length of 

 body exclusive of ovipositor 0.22; expanse male 0.28, length 0.18. 



Described from 3 females, i male bred May 26th — 2Sth, 1870, from cocoons 

 received from Dr. I. P. Trimble, and i female subsequently received from the same 

 gentleman — all obtained from larvae of Cofiotrachelus nenufhar. 



" But of what use are these parasites.'"' say you ! Well, they can not, 

 it is true, be turned to very great practical account, because they are not 

 sutHciently under our control; but it is a source of great satisfaction to 

 those who have been looking for many years for some natural aid to help 

 them in the artificial warfare waged against the Curculio, to know that 

 besides its several cannibal foes, there arc at last two true parasites which 

 attack it. Indeed with the knowledge of the Curculio-encmies figured 

 and described two years ago in the American Entomologist^ and of the 

 egg-destroying Thrips which I described to you last year, and these two 

 parasites, the grower of our luscious stone-fruits may with good reason 

 begin to hope for better days, for the prospect brightens. There is no 

 philosophy in the statement of Mr. Ransom,* that we can never hope 

 for assistance from pai'asites, Ijccause, as he confidently expresses it, "there 

 are none at present but what have always existed !" Such argument will 

 do for the believers in the old-school doctrine, that every thmg was cre- 

 ated just as we find it; but not for those who rightly comprehend the 



* Prairie Farmer, June 4tli, 1S70. 



