64 Psyche [June 
which the host feeds. The maggots attach themselves to the cater- 
pillar host as it crawls over the food plant, and later bore their way 
into its interior. Recently Mr. J. L. King, of the Ohio Experi- 
ment Station, has given us an extremely interesting account of the 
same general habit, the subject of his studies being the Cyrtid 
Pterodontia flavipes Gray, a parasite of spiders.1_ Up to the pres- 
ent time, however, no such startling deviation from the normal 
has been observed in the parasitic Hymenoptera. 
In 1909 and 1910 the writer, while engaged in the study of the 
hymenopterous parasites of the Gipsy and Browntail Moths at 
the laboratory of the U. S. Bureau of Entomology, Melrose 
Highlands, Mass., carried on an investigation of the life-history and 
habits of Perilampus hyalinus, a hyperparasite of the Fall Web- 
worm. In brief the life-history of this chalcidoid parasite was 
found to be as follows: Nothing in regard to the egg-laying habits 
could be ascertained. The first stage larva, however, a very 
curious being, heavily armored with chitinous plates and provided 
with numerous curved hooks and spines, was found crawling about 
on the outside of the caterpillar. Later these first stage larve or 
planidia were found to bore their way into the body cavity of the 
caterpillar, there swimming about freely until the primary parasite 
larva, either hymenopterous or dipterous, was found, and into 
which they gained entrance. The Perilampus larva then remained 
quiescent until the primary parasite became full-fed and made its 
exit from the caterpillar to spin its cocoon or form its puparium. 
- At the time of ecdysis the planidium found its way to the exterior 
of the host, after which it fed as an ectophagous parasite in the 
normal way. The egg-laying habit of this strange parasite has, 
however, remained a puzzle to entomologists, and at that time 
the writer made the following statement in regard to it:? 
“There have been made, so far as published records go, at any 
rate, no observations upon the oviposition of members of the genus 
Perilampus. It is known, however, that oviposition does not occur 
in the normal way, or in the manner we are accustomed to regard 
as the normal method of oviposition among the parasitic Hymen- 
1 King, J. L., Observations on the Life-history of Pterodontia flavipes Gray (Diptera). An- 
nals Ent. Soc. Am., Vol. IX, p. 309-321 (1916). 
2Smith, Harry §8., The Chalcidoid Genus Perilampus, and its Relation to the Problem of 
Parasite Introduction. Bull. U.S. Dept. Agric., Bur. Ent. Tech. Ser., No. 19, pp. 33-69, 1912. 
