220 SECOND REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



the request that they be pinned upon currant bushes among the leaves 

 where the currant-fly eggs were to be found. The introduction of para- 

 sites in this manner into locahties where they had not previously occurred, 

 has been shown to be practicable ;* and in consideration of the great im- 

 portance of parasitic aid in the destruction of our insect pests, I sincerely 

 hope that my efforts to distribute this veiy efficient parasite may prove, 

 from observations to be made hereafter, to have been successful. 



Examples of the insect were sent by me to Mr. L. O. Howard, of the 

 Department of Agriculture at Washington — a gentleman who has made 

 special study of the family to which it pertains, viz., the Chalcididce. He 

 informs me that there is no doubt of its being the species described and 

 named by Prof. C. V. Riley, in 1879 (Can. Entom., Sept. 1879, v. 11, pp. 161- 

 162) as Trichogramma pretiosa, examples of which had been reared, at 

 Washington, from eggs of the cotton-worm moth, Alefia argtUacea 

 Hilbn.. collected in Alabama. The description is reproduced, with addi- 

 tional information, in Prof. J. H. Comstock's Report upon Cotton Insects 

 (Washington, 1879), p. 193. It has since been extensively reared from 

 eggs of the same moth collected in Florida, by Mr. H. G. Hubbard. It 

 has also been bred at the U. S. Department of Agriculture from eggs of 

 an unknown Noctuid moth occurring on orange trees, and from Aleyrodes. 

 Prof Riley, from some structural features, thought that it might be nec- 

 essarj^ to establish a new genus for this species and one or two closely al- 

 lied ones, but Mr. Howard finds it to be a true Trichograinnia^ as at first 

 referred. 

 Another species of the genus T. mimita Riley,t [shown in Fig. 68, and 



hardly to be distinguished in appearance 

 from T. pretiosa], has been reared from 

 the eggs of one of our common but- 

 terflies, of extensive distribution, Limen- 

 itis disippiis. Parasitized examples of 

 these eggs have given from four to 

 six specimens of the minute creature, 

 which, notwithstanding its specific name 



FiGfiS.— Trichogramma MIXUTA Riley: a, the f ni^mifn PYrppds in size the mirro- 

 fly in its natural position : h, a front wins : c. ;i 01 minuia, exceeub in Size LUC miciu 



aH^nuTchl.'iiSr*'''''''""^ «, an antenna- g^opic T. pretiosa,\\-\Q latter being about 

 0.25 mm. in length. 



In connection with the above notice of the egg-parasite of the currant- 

 fly, it may be of interest to offer the following note of the oviposition of 

 the currant-fly as observed by me, as its method has not to my knowl- 

 edge been previously published. 



June 7, 1868. Netnalus ventricosiis was seen to deposit thirty eggs upon 

 a single currant-leaf within one hour. In the act of ovipositing, it curved 

 the tip of its abdomen downward and forward, directing its ovipositor 

 toward its head, in which position the end of the egg is seen to protrude 



*Le Baron : Third Annual Report on the Insects of Illinois, 1873, pp. 200-202. 

 t Third Annual Report on the Insects of Missouri, 1871, p. 158, /t/. 72. 



