TT. S. I». A., n. K. Tecli. Ser. 12. Tt. YI. Issued September 18, lOOS. 



MlSCELLANEOl 8 PAPERS. 



A RECORD OF RESULTS FROM REARINGS AND DISSEC- 

 TIONS OF TACHINID^. 



I'.y Charles H. T. Townsend, 



Eai)crt ill Chanir of DiiilertiUfi Pimifiifefi. Clipsii Mulli Ltihurdliiry. 

 INTRODUCTION. 



It seems opportune to present, for the benefit of those interested, a 

 preliminary announcement of some of the results secured in the course 

 of the work connected Avith the rearing of Tachinidse, carried on 

 under the direction of Dr. L. O. Howard, Chief of the Bureau of 

 Entomology, at the Gipsy Moth Laboratory, Melrose Highlands, 

 Mass. Credit is due to assistants for carrying out the details of much 

 of the work, as well as for some originality on certain points. Mr. 

 AV. R. Thompson has made all the dissections and prepared all the 

 early-stage material for permanent preservation, both microscope 

 slides and alcoholics, all of which work has been performed most 

 admirably. He perfected the method of bleaching the puparia so as 

 to show the anal stigmata to the best advantage in a slide mount. He 

 has also done all the photographic work. Mr. D. H. Clemons has 

 betn continuously employed on the investigation of the reproductive 

 hai'its of the various species in the outdoor cages, in which work he 

 has shown much ability. He made the startling discovery of the leaf- 

 larviposition habit of Eupeleteria magnicornis. Mr. T. L. Patterson 

 has attended continuously to the Japanese Tachinas, and secured from 

 them the maximum day's record of oviposition. 



As this work was entireh^ new, practically nothing having ever 

 before been attempted in the way of systematically rearing tachinids 

 from i^g^^ to fly, it called for considerable ingenuity and much origi- 

 nality of method. It further developed, almost at the outset, that 

 tlie various species were b}' no means uniform in their habits of re- 

 l)roduction ; in fact, so greatly did they differ in this respect that a 

 method adapted to one was by no means sure to succeed w ith another. 

 The first two species studied furnish an apt illustration of this point. 

 They were Parexorista eheloni<v Eond. and Blepliariya sciitellata 

 R.-D. The former is practically confined to Ewproctis chrysorrhoia 

 L. and the latter to PortJietria dispar L. Both are single brooded. 



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