AKT. 9 TAVO-WINGED FLIES OF TETBE MILTOGRAMMINI ALLEN 37 



Oils remains of many flies, as tliey had been left by the feeding stages. 

 These were taken to the hiboratory and carefully examined, and 

 found to contain, among others, the dismembered parts of what was 

 unquestionably *S'. triUneata. Heads and male genitalia, both of 

 which are sufficient for diagnostic purposes, were isolated from the 

 general debris. This observation indicates a unique relationship 

 between these two species. The wasp, which provides its nest with 

 flies of several species, apparently does not hesitate to use the bodies 

 of its Senotainia parasites vdien they can be captured, while the fly 

 lurks about its enemy and host, infesting its nest with maggots, when- 

 ever opportunity ofl'ers. We have here then, an interesting case of 

 wasp predaceous on fly, and fly in turn parasitic on wasp. But 

 stranger still, Senotainia maggots in the nests of this wasp must be 

 accustomed to subsisting in part on the bodies of the adults of their 

 own species, when such are provided by the host. In fact, it is not 

 improbable, as our discussion at another place of experiments per- 

 formed with this species will show, for this wasp by capturing and 

 carrying into its nest the body of a mature female Senotainia, to 

 unwittingly infest its nest with the parasite. 



In connection with the work on S. triUneata, it was discovered 

 that larvae carefully pressed from the body of gravid females were 

 capable of readily establishing themselves under artificial conditions. 

 It appears worth wliile to dwell briefly on the information secured 

 through them, first because our knowledge of the habits of the 

 immature- stages of tliis group have not been thoroughly worked out 

 and secondly because it serves to further establish the Sarcophagid 

 affinities of the group. 



In one experiment, several active maggots squeezed from a gravid 

 female v/ere placed on nymphs of Leptoglossus, artificially paralyzed 

 by crushing the head, to simulate the condition of the normal food. 

 The maggots started to feed at once, through holes torn in the 

 exoskeleton, at joints not heavily reinforced, such as the leg sockets. 

 They frequently buried their body up to the anal plate in the feeding 

 punctures. The maggots developed normally, so far as could be 

 discovered, becoming in their later instars scavengers on the decaying 

 bodies of the bugs. Two of the lot formed puparia, which, however, 

 failed to emerge. 



In another instance, the body of a female which had been allowed 

 to lie in the cage for a day following death, was found to contain 

 several healthy maggots Vvdiich had consumed the softer tissues within 

 the body of their mother. These were placed on the body of a freshly 

 killed adult Leptoglossus and started immediately to wander over 

 the body in search of food, seeking the softer places in the integument 

 where they proceeded to make punctures by raking backward and 

 forward with the mouthhooks. The morning after placing on pre- 



