426 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 5 



The earliest record in the files of the Southern Field Crop Laboratory 

 indicating the habit of oviposition of Chelonus was made by Mr. J. D. 

 Mitchell at Victoria, Texas, August 17, 1909, when he observed several 

 adults of Chelonus texanus apparently ovipositing in the numerous 

 egg masses of some undetermined Lepidopterous insect on the walls 

 of a house. 



At Brownsville, Texas, on March 11, 1911, the junior author made 

 the following note: 



''While collecting eggs of Heliothis dbsoleta Fabr. on young corn this 

 morning I noticed a Hymenopterous parasite on a leaf. I disturbed 

 it slightly but it would not leave its place. I then noticed that it was 

 standing over a dark Heliothis egg, with its ovipositor in the position 

 for parasitizing the egg." 



The parasite, which was found to be Chelonus texanus was caught 

 and was taken to the laboratory, where it was placed in a tube with 

 about two hundred Heliothis eggs. It oviposited in one egg after 

 another, spending from five to thirty seconds at each egg. Heliothis 

 larvse emerged from the eggs on March 13 to 15. A number of these 

 larvae were reared and observed for parasitism. On April 6 one larva 

 was dead and a white Chelonus larva had emerged from it. The dead 

 Heliothis larva was about one fourth of an inch in length and the para- 

 site larva was about the same length. The body of another Heliothis 

 larva, which had probably died a day or two earlier, was dried into a 

 small lump. The Chelonus larva which had emerged from this second 

 Heliothis larva was very active. Both of these Chelonus larvse died 

 without pupating, but by April 13 two Chelonus cocoons were obtained 

 from the lot of Heliothis larvse from the parasitized eggs. On April 

 24 one adult of Chelonus emerged from one of these cocoons and was 

 placed with another Chelonus, both from eggs of the original female. 

 Both parasites seemed to be females, though one was larger than the 

 other. They seemed to desire to escape from the glass tube in which 

 they were confined, and they showed no desire to copulate. On 

 April 25 fifty Heliothis eggs were placed in the tube, but oviposition 

 was not observed. By May 12 the smaller parasite, which must have 

 been a male, had died. The other parasite was given Heliothis eggs 

 on a piece of corn leaf. It examined the corn leaf and then the eggs, 

 and forthwith began to oviposit. 



The parasite collected on March 11 was placed with about seven 

 hundred Heliothis eggs in four lots of from one to two hundred eggs. 

 During the period from March 11 to March 20 the parasite probably 

 oviposited in most of these eggs. It was given drops of a solution of 

 sugar and water for food, and sometimes it fed greedily. The parasite 



