Fig. 30. —Parasitized lar¬ 
va of D. myron. (After 
Riley.) 
Sphingidae 
Before the caterpillar reaches maturity the grubs emerge from 
beneath the skin, and attaching themselves to the epidermis, 
proceed to weave about themselves 
little white cocoons, in which they 
are transformed into perfect insects, 
emerging to repeat the cycle of 
life. Caterpillars which have been 
thus parasitized do not survive the 
ordeal. The accompanying cut (Fig. 30), shows a larva 
upon which the ichneumon-flies have done their deadly work. 
The insect, which accomplishes the task 
of destruction imposed upon it in the 
economy of nature, is very small. The 
figure given herewith shows it of its 
natural size, and also enlarged, so that its 
structural peculiarities may be more easily 
recognized. The species which we are con¬ 
sidering shares this liability to parasitism 
with its congeners, as well as with the repre¬ 
sentatives of many other genera of the Sphingidcr. I was greatly 
annoyed a number of years ago by having a large series of the 
larvae of the beautiful Darapsa versicolor , which I had collected 
in their early stages, destroyed by this ichneumon-fly, and the 
following summer, and, in fact, for several summers following, 
the larvae of D. versicolor, which had been for awhile quite 
abundant in certain localities known to me, almost entirely dis¬ 
appeared. In one ravine, where I had obtained them by the 
hundreds, they were not to be 
found. I account for their dis¬ 
appearance by the unusual num¬ 
bers of the parasites which had 
infested them that summer. 
The larva of myron under¬ 
goes pupation in a loose cocoon Fig. 32.—Pupa of D. myron 
of coarsely woven threads of silk, which it spins under leaves at 
the surface of the ground. In this respect its habits are strictly 
like those of the other species of the genus. 
(3) Darapsa versicolor Harris, Plate III, Fig. 13, $ . (The 
Hydrangea Sphinx.) 
Fig. 31.—Micro- 
gaster which de¬ 
stroys larvae of D. 
myron. 
69 
