2l8 SECOND REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



cumstances favor it and enable it to multiply and become numerous in 

 any section of our country, this little enemy, its mortal foe, will speedily 

 be there to subdue and stamp it down. Thus nicely are the works of na- 

 ture balanced, and no creature is permitted to usurp a place in her domain 

 which does not belong to it. 



The specimens of the parasite obtained by me at the time referred to 

 in the above notice, were submitted to a friend who had made study of 

 the group to which they belong, who believed them to be an undescribed 

 species, and was only able to give them a doubtful generic reference. 

 They were subsequently destroyed, and from that time until the present 

 year (an interval of fourteen years), although I have continued to search 

 for them I have been unable to obtain the species. 



Its rediscovery by me the present year, and the determination of the 

 species, lend additional interest to the notes upon it that I made at its first 

 observation, at Utica, N. Y., in June, 1866, and I therefore transcribe them 

 from my note-book : 



I had collected a number of currant leaves upon which the currant saw- 

 fly had deposited eggs, and was counting the eggs upon each to obtain 

 the average number per leaf, when I noticed an occasional brown egg 

 among them, appearing somewhat abnormal in shape. On placing them 

 under a lens a resemblance to a pupal form was detected. I at once sus- 

 pected the presence of the parasite for which we had been hoping. Al- 

 though there seemed to be but the merest chance of discovering at large 

 an insect so minute as this must necessarily be, I instituted a careful 

 search of the currant bushes in the garden, and in a short time had the 

 great gratification of seeing a minute speck moving among the eggs, 

 which under my lens revealed a form which left scarce room for doubt of 

 its parasitic character. During the day I detected several more of the 

 kind upon the leaves containing egg-deposits, affording strong evidence 

 of their relationship. A few days thereafter (perhaps a week), in a small 

 phial in which I had placed some eggs that I suspected to have been par- 

 asitized, I had the delight of seeing several of the familiar forms of my 

 currant-leaf acquaintances, and the ruptured pupa cases from which they 

 had evidently escaped. 



The following year (1867) there was a marked diminution in the number 

 of currant-worms observed, and a corresponding increase in parasitized 

 eggs. Many of the leaves had not been visited by the parasite, but of 

 those that gave evidence of such visit, the work of destruction was almost 

 complete, for of several leaves bearing each from thirty to forty eggs, all 

 but five or six were transformed into parasitic pupae. 



In June, 1868, I was able to make, at Schoharie, N. Y., the following 

 observations upon the oviposition of the parasite within the eggs of the 

 currant saw-fly : 



In a small phial in which had been placed some parasitized eggs of the 

 saw-fly, a male and female parasite had emerged. That I might observe 

 their actions I introduced a piece of currant-leaf having upon it some 

 eggs which I had just seen deposited. No evidence was given that the 



