350 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I4I 



Ants. — A Madam Merian noticed that ants cleared houses of cock- 

 roaches (Kirby and Spence, 1822). A small reddish-yellow ant, 

 called Pucchugigi by Peruvian Indians, pursued and destroyed a cock- 

 roach called Chilicabra which was a pest in native huts (Tschudi, 

 1847). Schwabe (1950b) found swarms of ants attacking living 

 Pycnoscelus surinameiisis and stated that ants are probably the chief 

 enemy of this cockroach in Hawaii. Wallace (1891) stated that in 

 Africa a band of driver ants may enter a house and clear it of cock- 

 roaches and other arthropods. In British Guiana, Beebe, (1925) 

 found that several times a year army ants cleared the laboratory of all 

 cockroaches and tarantulas. 



Wasp egg parasites. — Matsumura (191 7, in Asano, 1937) proposed 

 that parasitic wasps such as Evania and Brachygastcr be protected in 

 Japan as the natural enemies of cockroaches. In one area in France, 



20 percent of the oothecae of Lohoptera decipiens were parasitized by 

 Zeuxevania splendidula (Genieys, 1924). Edmunds (1952a) found 

 that 12 percent of 459 oothecae of Parcoblatta collected during De- 

 cember through April of 1950-51 in Ohio were parasitized; evaniids 

 accounted for about 7 percent of the parasitization. Additional col- 

 lection data in 1951-52 Edmunds (1953a) showed that 8.7 percent of 

 320 wood-cockroach oothecae were parasitized ; 2.8 percent of these 

 parasites were evaniids; almost 13 percent of the egg capsules col- 

 lected showed evidence of previous parasite emergence. Cameron 

 (1957) reported that oothecae of Periplanefa americana collected in 

 Saudi Arabia were 29 percent parasitized in March and 25 percent 

 parasitized in October by ^z^ama a/'/^^wrff^'ai'^^r. Sonan (1924) found 

 I of 65 oothecae of P. americana and P. anstralasiae parasitized by 

 E. appendigaster in Formosa. 



Cottam (1922) stated that the increase of Supella supellectilium 

 in Khartoum was checked by a wasp egg-parasite that was later 

 identified as Anastatus tenuipes (see p. 246) (Ferriere, 1930, 1935). 

 In this country, this wasp seemed to be effective in decreasing the num- 

 bers of Supella in certain areas in Arizona (Flock, 1941). 



In Formosa, Tetrastichns hagenozvii was an important parasite of 

 cockroach eggs (Maki, 1937). Sonan (1924) reported 30 percent 

 parasitization of 65 oothecae of Periplanefa americana and P. anstra- 

 lasiae collected in Formosa. In Bangalore, India, the natural para- 

 sitization of randomly collected oothecae of P. americana varied from 



21 percent (of 495 oothecae), July 1947-June 1948, and 43 percent 

 (of 288 oothecae), July-December 1948, to 57 percent (of 178 oo- 

 thecae), July-October 1949 (Usman, 1949). Cameron (1955) ob- 

 tained T. hagenozvii from oothecae collected in Trinidad, B.W.I., and 



