370 Bulletin 265. 



author had reared the insect from the fruit of a species of Mountain 

 Ash {Sorbus scandica). In 1874, G. Mayr* redescribed the species 

 from what he thought was one of Boheman's original specimens, but 

 as he states it was one collected at large and not reared from Sorbus 

 there is considerable doubt as to its being the same. The next year, 

 Thomson' redescribed the species from specimens reared from Sorbus 

 and removed it from the genus Torymus to its present place in Syn- 

 tomaspis. He also states that it is rare in Middle and Southern 

 Sweden. 



In 1894, Dalla Torre," without giving any reason for so doing, con- 

 siders druparum the same as puhescens, a species known to be parasitic 

 on an insect producing galls on the rose. Now that the life-history 

 of druparum is known, the identity of the two forms becomes extremely 

 doubtful. It was because of this unfortunate confusion that Mokshetsky 

 used the name S. pubescens. 



Life History 



The Apple-seed Chalcis passes the winter as a white larva or grub 

 inside the apple-seeds, either on the ground or more rarely clinging to 

 the trees. In the latter part of May the larvae transform to pupae and 

 in June the adults appear. They are very active on the wing, par- 

 ticularly the males, which fly with a rapid zigzag motion difficult to 

 follow with the eye. 



Oviposition. — The eggs are not laid in very small apples, as was at 

 first supposed, but in those that are one-half inch or more in diameter. 

 On warm, sunny days in June the female may be seen alighting on the 

 young apples which she examines carefully with her antennae. When 

 a suitable place has been found, usually on the side of the apple, she 

 extends her abdomen to its full length, raises the tip and bends it so 

 as to bring the tip of the ovipositor to the surface of the apple. The 

 ovipositor is then disengaged from the sheaths and driven into the 

 apple. The abdomen then assumes its normal position. On June 22, 

 1908, we succeeded in killing a female before she could withdraw the 

 ovipositor; the apple was then cut in two, showing that the ovipositor 

 is inserted directly into the young seed (Figs. 67 and 68). This apple 

 was three-fifths of an inch in diameter. In the green apple the puncture 

 is indicated, both in the flesh and in the seed coat, by a brownish dis- 

 coloration which in some varieties disappears as the fruit ripens. The 



8 Verh. z.-b. Ges. Wien, XXIV., p. 103, 1874. 

 •Skand. Hymen., IV., p. 76, 1875. 

 *° Cat. Hymen., V., p. 294. 



