238 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I4I 



wasp crawled over the surface of the ootheca, actively vibrating her 

 antennae, and settled with the axis of her body parallel to the axis of 

 the egg case as it lay upon its right side. Lying on her right side, the 

 wasp extended her ovipositor and punctured the ootheca in the fifth 

 cell on the left side; she remained in this position for about 15 

 minutes. Cameron (1957) described similar oviposition behavior that 

 lasted about half an hour. Kieffer (191 2) and Crosskey (1951) 



Fig. 5. — Evania appendigaster. Left, dorsal view, X 8. Right, side view, X 5. 

 (Reproduced with permission. British Museum [Natural History], 1951, 

 figs. I A and iB.) 



stated that the female deposits her eggs before the walls of the ootheca 

 harden. 



Development. — Kieffer (1912) stated that the larvae in this family 

 eat the cockroach eggs and pupate in the ootheca without forming a 

 cocoon. Smith (1945) stated that the larva feeds on one cockroach 

 tgg after another until all are destroyed ; by that time it is full grown 

 and it pupates within the ootheca. Cameron (1957) found that there 

 are five larval instars and that in material from Saudi Arabia there 

 are three or possibly four generations a year. 



