514 Phylum Arthropoda 



[see p. 459.] Oviposition by the parasite on this host was readily 

 obtained and the resulting progeny were reared to the adult stage in 

 small glass vials. Although small lumps of dry sugar and occasional 

 drops of water were provided some of the female parasites, neither food 

 nor moisture of this nature appeared to be essential. 



Reference 

 Family Vespidae 



For the rearing of Eumenes, Odynerus, and Polistes see p. 517. 



Bibliography 



Vance, A. M., and Parker, H. L. 1932. Laelius anthrenivorus Trani, an interest- 

 ing bethylid parasite of Anthrenus verbasci L. in France. Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash. 



34=1- 



Family dryinidae 

 j 



culture of aphelopus theliae 



S. I. Kornhauser, University of Louisville Medical School 



Aphelopus theliae (Gahan, 1918) is a polyembryonic dryinid, para- 

 sitic on the membracid, Thelia bimaculata. 



The eggs of Thelia are laid in the smaller branches of the black lo- 

 cust tree, Robinia pseudo-acacia (Funkhouser, 1915). They hatch in 

 late spring or early summer and the nymphs are tended by ants and 

 transported to the bases of the locust trees where they feed, staying 

 fairly quietly in the cracks of the bark. Aphelopus females were first 

 found in early June running over the bark hunting the nymphs. They 

 attack and lay small, transparent, oval eggs in the body cavity of the 

 nymphs, piercing the chitinous exoskeleton with their sharp ovipositors. 

 One egg is generally laid in each nymph. This act of oviposition may be 

 demonstrated in the laboratory in a test tube, one nymph after another 

 being put into the tube with a female Aphelopus. Thelia nymphs of 

 the 2nd or 3rd instar are best. 



The stung nymphs are then placed on a locust tree out of doors to 

 feed and grow. Around the trunk is sewed a cylinder of mosquito 

 netting which may be tied to the trunk near the ground and with a remov- 

 able loop above. One can examine the nymphs from time to time in this 

 way and protect them from enemies and also from escaping. When the 

 stung nymphs have reached the 6th instar their abdomens show the 

 effects of the parasites. The sclerites are poorly chitinized, the segments 

 distended by the fifty to seventy larval Aphelopus, and the nymphal 

 genital appendages greatly reduced (Kornhauser, 1919). When the 

 larvae are about to emerge, the nymph becomes restless and crawls up on 

 the bark. 



