244 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I4I 



Cheiloneurus viridiscutum (Girault) 



Synonymy. — Cristatithorax Girault = Cheiloneurus Westwood 

 [Mercet, 1921]. 



Natural host. — Ellipsidion australe, Australia, Queensland (Dodd, 

 1917). 



Comperia merceti (Compere) 



Synonymy. — Comperia merceti var. falsicornis Gomes [Peck, 



1951]. 

 Natural hosts. — Blattella germanica, Brazil, Distrito Federal 



(Gomes, 1941) : In the English summary of his paper, Gomes states 

 that C. merceti var, falsicornis v^as reared from B. germanica. How- 

 ever, in the body of the paper, he states that the supposed origin of 

 the parasite was the ootheca of B. germanica. Burks (personal com- 

 munication, 1956) does not believe that this wasp parasitizes the eggs 

 of B. germanica. We (unpublished data, 1957) exposed six oothecae 

 of B. germanica to C. merceti. In order to retard water loss the 

 oothecae were removed from the females by cutting the insects in two 

 so that each ootheca remained attached to the posterior pari of the 

 abdomen. No wasps developed in these oothecae. 



Supella supcllectilium, U.S.A., Kansas (Lawson, 1954a) ; Hawaii 

 (Zimmerman, 1944; Compere, 1946; Keck, 1951). 



Adult behavior. — Males and nonovipositing females showed a flea- 

 like jumping tendency. Adults were attracted to light and were found 

 near windows. Both sexes pursued an erratic course in walking and 

 continually touched the surface with their antennae. (Lawson, 1954a.) 



Oviposition. — The wasp (pi. 34, B) selected a site on an ootheca 

 with the sheath of her ovipositor ; it was uncertain whether there was 

 a definite preference for oviposition sites. Wasp tended to choose a 

 nearly horizontal position for oviposition. She preferred to oviposit 

 into eggs about 2 weeks old, although she would place eggs in oothecae 

 less than a week old and in embryos in the green band stage. There 

 were 1-50 oviposition punctures per ootheca. (Lawson, 1954a.) 



Development. — If enough wasp larvae were present, they ate all 

 eggs in an ootheca. Occasionally wasps developed in one end of an 

 ootheca while cockroaches developed in the other ; when this occurred, 

 the cockroach nymphs always emerged last. The developmental pe- 

 riod was 30-41 days at room temperature. There were 5-25 parasites 

 per ootheca. The single exit hole in the ootheca varied from 0.6 to 0.9 

 mm. in diameter. (Lawson, 1954a.) 



Distribution. — U.S.A. : New Jersey south to Florida, west to Illi- 

 nois, Kansas, and Arizona. West Indies ; Central and South America ; 

 Hawaii. (Burks, personal communication, 1956.) 



