ZENILLIA AND ALLIED GENERA — SELLERS 47 



sometimes one pair either weak or lacking; third segment with a 

 marginal row; fourth covered with erect bristles hardly if at all 

 longer than abdominal hairs of segments 2 and 3. 

 Length 8 to 10 mm. 



Distribution.— -Widely distributed throughout Europe. This spe- 

 cies has been liberated in the northeastern part of the United States; 

 as yet it has not been recovered. 



Hosts. — Stilpnotia salicis (Linnaeus) (principal host, sometimes 

 reaching a 35-percent parasitization) , Dasychira pudibimda (Lin- 

 naeus) (overwintering host), Malacosorna neustria (Linnaeus) and 

 Porthetria dispar (Linnaeus) (records from the Bureau's former Cen- 

 tral European Parasite Laboratory, Budapest, Hungary). Published 

 records: Baer and Lundbeck mention Orgyia antiqua (Linnaeus) and 

 Arctia caja (Linnaeus). P. dispar is a very rare and only an acci- 

 dental host; the Carcelia recovered from dispar is usually separata 

 (Rondani) . Howard and Fiske were discussing G. separata instead of 

 G. gnava. 



Remarks. — Description based upon an examination of 25 to 30 

 specimens from central Europe. 



Adults, May to August; number per host, one to several; genera- 

 tions, two; hibernation, as larva in host larva; copulation time, 15 

 minutes. 



The manner in which this species oviposits is a very interesting one. 

 It has the habit of projecting its eggs or larvae through the air for a 

 distance from one-half the length of the body of the adult up to at 

 least one-half inch. It is not necessary for the female to come in 

 contact with the host hairs, and the females can oviposit when the 

 host larvae are crawling rapidly away from or past them. It was 

 never determined whether the larva leaves the egg after it contacts the 

 host hairs, whether the eggshell is ruptured at the time of ejection, or 

 whether the larva is ejected through the air with the eggshell attached. 

 Many attempts were made to determine this peculiarity, but by the 

 time the attacked larva was placed under the binocular, the parasite 

 Jarva was always found crawling clown the host hair; in every case 

 the collapsed empty eggshell of the cylindrical, elongate type was 

 found attached to a host hair somewhere near the outer extremity. It 

 is believed that the egg is ruptured when ejected from the ovipositor, 

 and that the larva passes through the air either partly emerged or 

 with the eggshell attached. 



In 1930 a small shipment of about 136 puparia of Carcelia that 

 were described as gnava reared from Dasychira pudibunda was sent to 

 the Gypsy Moth Laboratory from Budapest, Hungary. A total of 80 

 adults were subsequently secured from these puparia. The species 



