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 very 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. n, pp. 161- 

 162) as Trzc hog-ram ma pretiosa, examples of which had been reared, at 

 Washington, from eggs of the cotton-worm moth, Aletia argillacea 

 Hiibn., 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 ixovn. Aleyrodes. 

 Prof 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 al- 

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

 referred. 



Another species of the genus T. miiiuta Riley.f [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, Liine/i- 

 z'tis disippus. Parasitized examples of 

 these eggs have given from four to 

 six specimens of the minute creature, 

 which, notwithstanding its specific name 

 of ininuta, exceeds in size the micro- 

 scopic T. pretiosa, the 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. Nematiis ventricosus 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 &g%, is seen to protrude 



*Le Baron : Third Annual lleport on the Insects of Illinois, 1S73, pp. 200-202. 

 •j- Third Annual Keport on the Insects of Missouri, 1871, p. \bi,Jig. 72. 



F106S.— Trichoqramma MiNDTA Riley: a. the 

 fly in its natural position ; h, a front wins ; c. a 

 hind wing; d, one of the legs; e, an antenna — 

 all much enlargeJ. 



