42 Journal of the Mitchell Society [December 



were crowded with the funnels of the aphis Hon. These funnels aver- 

 aged more than four to the foot in an open space about 150 feet long 

 between a woods and a swamp. The chances of an ant traveling that 

 road were certainly slim, but the chances of an ant lion getting very 

 many full meals must have been correspondingly slim. Yet each one 

 of these little fellows had moved nearly a cubic inch of earth in con- 

 structing his funnel. 



As important as these predacious insects are, they are by no means 

 as important as the parasitic insects. Allusion has been made to the 

 Tachina fly and the army worm. In addition to these parasitic flies 

 there is a large group of parasitic wasps which are among the most im- 

 portant of the parasitic insects. Many of these forms are so small 

 that very little is known about them. And I think I would be justified 

 in saying that they are perhaps the least known of all of the insects. 

 Yet we are gradually accumulating knowledge of these forms and some 

 of the more important points are perhaps worth reporting here. We 

 have among the parasitic wasps many parasites of the egg, larval and 

 pupal stages of insects, but cases of adult parasites are not so common. 

 Sometimes the egg of the parasite is laid in one stage but does not 

 emerge as a perfect insect until a later stage. Usually the parasitic 

 stage is confined to the larva which feeds upon its host while living 

 within the appropriate stage of the host, but sometimes the parasite 

 really lives externally as is the case with certain parasites of the gloomy 

 scale which we have under investigation. Here the adult parasite 

 lays her egg or eggs under the scale covering of the host. The larval 

 parasite attaches itself to the host and sucks it dry just as a predacious 

 aphis maggot devours a plant louse. When it has completely de- 

 stroyed the scale it changes to a pupa and thence to an adult. The 

 adult cuts a neat circular hole through the scale covering and makes 

 its escape. One of the most interesting points about this parasite is 

 the apparent ability of the female to tell the scale insects that have 

 been parasitized. Although I have watched upwards of 150 of these 

 parasites under the high power binocular I have yet to find a case 

 where one has made the mistake of ovipositing upon a scale insect 

 that is parasitized. It is exceedingly interesting to watch the business- 

 like way that these little fellows have as they pass from scale to scale 

 tapping each one with their antennae until they find a suitable host, 

 then slipping the delicate ovipositor under the scale covering deposit- 

 ing one or two or three eggs and passing on to the next victim. 



Among the many interesting things about these parasites not the 



