ny — June iS.S,v j 



PSYCHE. 



ol 



insect pests, I sincerely hope that my 

 etlbrts to distriliute this very efficient 

 parasite may prove, from observations 

 to lie made hereafter, to have been suc- 

 cessful. 



Examples of the insect were sent by 

 me to Mr. L. O. Hov^'ard, of the De- 

 partment of agriculture at Washington, 

 a gentleman who has made special 

 stnd}' of the family to which it pertains, 

 viz., the chalcididae. He informs me 

 that there is no doubt of its being the 

 species described and named by Dr. 

 C. V. Riley in 1S79 (Can. entom., 

 Sept. 1879 V. II, p. i6i-i62)as Triclio- 

 f^amfna pretiosa, examples of which 

 had been reared, at Washington, from 

 eggs of the cotton-worm moth, Alctia 

 argillacea Hiibn., collected in Alabama. 

 The description is reproduced, with 

 additional information, in Prof. J. II. 

 Comstock's Report upon cotton insects 

 (Washington, 1S79), 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. 



Dr. Riley, from some structural 

 features, thought that it might be nec- 

 essary to establish a new genus for this 

 species and one or two closely allied 

 ones, but Mr. Howard finds it to be a 

 true Tr i chogramma , as at first referred. 



Another species of the genus, T. 



miiinta Riley,' has been reared from the 

 eggs of one of our common butterflies, 

 of extensive distribution, Lunenitls 

 distppus. Parasitized examples of 

 these eggs have given from four to six 

 specimensof the minute creature, which, 

 notwithstanding its specific name of 

 niinuta^ exceeds in size the microsco- 

 pic T. pretiosa, the latter being only 

 about 0.3=5 mm. in length. 



In connection with the above notice 

 of the egg-parasite of the currant-fl}', 

 it may be of interest to offer the follow- 

 ing note of the oviposition of the cur- 

 rant-fly as observed by me, as its method 

 has not to my knowledge been previ- 

 ously published : 



June 7, 186S. Ncinatits vcntricosits. 

 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 and attach itself to the 

 leaf-nervure, when the ovipositor is 

 withdrawn, and the egg left in position. 

 Moving backward a very little, another 

 egg is similarly deposited, and in like 

 manner the operation is continued, until 

 the leaf has its assigned quota, or the 

 supply of eggs is exhausted. The eggs 

 produced their larvae on June 14th. 



I Third Annual report on tlw hist-cts of Missouri, 

 1S71, p. 15S, fig. 72. 



