1906] 
GIRA ULr^TRICIIOGRAMMA RRETIOSA RILEY 
141 
(Jii the fourteenth of June, a single female without hesitation, oviposited twenty 
(20) times into infertile host eggs which were supplied her (Vide seep, (i). The eggs 
of the parasite hatched, and a generation successfully develo])ed in these infertile ova. 
This being the case, it is doubtful whether or not this oviposition was due to faulty 
instinct, although the parasite was, seemingly, not conscious that the hosts were infer- 
tile. The fact is a very interesting one. It is worthy of note that these infertile eggs 
when thus parasitized, did not shrivel at all, but remained as full in appearance as 
fertile and normally developing eggs. The cheeks, however, shriveled completely. 
On the first of October, a tenth reared generation of TrwJwtjramma was obtained 
from infertile hosts under similar conditions. 
On the morning of the twenty-fifth of June, the last of the newly emerged females 
of the third reared generation were found still wandering about the bell-jar under 
which confined, in search of fresh hosts in which to deposit; as there were only eleven 
(11) of the latter present, not already blackened by parasitism, it was highly prob- 
able that all of them had been deposited into. 
In spite of this, the females were ovipositing continuously, refusing, in every 
case observed, the blackened hosts. To the contrary, depositing from three to five 
(3-5) times in the yet pale hosts. At times, these were refused. 
In one of these pale eggs (which as stated, were also evidently parasitized but 
not yet blackened) which had been isolated, a female deposited about four (4) times; 
this egg turned black two (2) hours afterwards, ]>roving beyoml doubt that that 
female had oviposited into a host already parasitized about forty-eight (48) hours 
previously, as the black color does not appear until after the parasite’s egg hatches, 
at this time of the year, slightly under three (3) days. It is probable that some of 
the pale eggs were not parasitized. 
Hence, apparently, the female recognizes hosts which have already been depos- 
ited into, not until they have blackened, or by their color. 
4. Number of eggs deposited', calculation of the possible maximum number 
deposited. The highest number of eggs observed to be laid was thirty-three (33). 
On the twenty-seventh of September, a single female issuing from obsoleta eggs col- 
lected on corn, in a small glass vial, at 3.40 P. m., was at once confined in another 
glass vial, closely stoppered, with portions of cotton leaves containing many ripe host 
eggs. She oviposited as follow's. 
