NYMPIIALINAE: VANESSA ATAI.AN'I'A. 455 



searcli wax beyond. Tliey did not seem to Ik; aided at all hy siglit, for 

 they frecjnently ran aecidentally into tlie eater; )i liars when they were in 

 their way and tnrned aside as soon as their antennae eame into contact. 

 The smaller caterpillars were not stnng ; indeed there was scarcely s[)ace 

 between the spines to allow the parasites ro<nn to bring their short oviposi- 

 tors into contact with the skin : bnt the larger ones were repeatedly 

 pierced. On meeting these there was a moment's i)anse, then the parasite 

 ran or jumped, as it were, upon the side of" the caterpillar, flirted its wings 

 in the air, stung it in an instant's time, and then ran off and about as 

 before. It seemed to be indifferent as to whether the caterpillar was in 

 motion or quiet. When the caterpillar felt the sting he started and then 

 walked quickly away. In five or ten minutes the ])arasites became per- 

 fectly quiescent, although they had stung the caterpillars but a few times. 

 Probably they had exhausted their momentary supply of eggs. 



We have, besides, another hymenopten)iis parasite in Microgaster cari- 

 ^i«ta (88: 11), Avhich often crowds the body of the caterpillar full of worms, 

 eating the nourishment it endeavors to })rocure for itself; and still another, 

 a species of Eulophus, the coal-black chrysalids of which one may some- 

 times find, to the number of twenty or more, standing erect on their 

 hinder ends around the corpse they have destroyed, like black tomb-stones 

 in a cemetery, a most melancholy spectacle on opening a nest to get the 

 young caterpillar. 



As if these were not enough, a dipterous foe ravages what the Hymen- 

 optera have left, in the person of Exorista futilis (89: 10). ]Mr. P. S. 

 Sprague and myself have raised large numbers of this parasite. They 

 sting the caterpillar and emerge as maggots either from it when fully 

 grown, or more generally from the chrysalis, diu'ing the first seven days 

 of its suspension. Chrysalids containing these flies may generally be 

 distinguished by a pale ashen bloom, so far as my experience goes. The 

 maggots change at once to pupae and become winged in less than a fort- 

 night, or, in the examples I have seen, about the first of August. I do 

 not know at how young a stage the caterpillars are stung, l)ut I have had 

 specimens in my breeding cage for a fortnight which must have been 

 already pierced, but which showed no signs of any affection until after the 

 suspension of the chrysalis. Usually one but sometimes two dipterous 

 grubs come from a single specimen of atalanta. In escaping from the 

 })upa case the two anterior joints are forced off as a sort of lid, not whole 

 but broken into two equal halves, each the quarter of the periphery of a 

 sphere. 



In Europe numbers of Microgaster deprimator Spin., emerged early in 

 August from the caterpillars of the butterfly I was raising, and became 

 winged in eleven or twelve days ; not more than one-sixth of them were 

 males. Dr. Dimmock has called niv attention to the statement that 



