NOTES ON PODAGRION PACHYMERUM. 265 
mature ootheca. I am not in a position to confirm or contradict 
Xambeu’s observations on the finding of the parasites under the 
Mantis wings (though there is some doubt as to the identity of 
his species ; see Bull. Ent. Soc. France, ser. 5, vol. vill. 1878, 
p. elxiii.), but the explanations given are, at least, unnecessary 
and improbable.* : 
Giardina (l.c. p. 317) also states that this parasite usually 
infests only one side of the ootheca, and that frequently the 
eges on one side are all parasitized, while those on the other 
side were not attacked. In the specimens which I have examined 
there were individual parasites on both sides; sometimes only 
one or two in a compartment, but more usually all the eggs in 
one compartment were attacked. I can, however, confirm this 
author’s interesting observation that the pupe of the Podagrion 
Fig. 2.—Podagrion pachymerum laying eggs in Mantis ootheca, x18. 
in the Mantis eggs have their head directed to the tail end of 
the ege. Itis possibly for this reason that they do not make 
use of the exit passages already prepared for the use of the 
young Mantids, but instead bore their way through the walls of 
the ootheca to the exterior. 
On June 13th the Mantid larve began to hatch in numbers, 
all emerging in two or three days. Between July 13th and 20th 
about a dozen more Podagrion emerged, all of which were 
females. These would appear to be from eggs laid by the first 
brood six weeks before. The fact that they were all one sex 
may have been due to pairing not having taken place in cap- 
tivity, and the eggs having developed parthenogenetically into 
females, as is the case with many other insects. 
Specimens of Podagrion pachymerum were also bred by P. A. 
Buxton from ootheca of Mantis religiosa found in Algeria and 
* Since writing the above, I find that A. Girault has (Ent. News, 
Philadelphia, 1907, xviil., p. 107) described shortly the egg-laying of 
Podagrion mantis, a parasite of the American Stagomantis carolina. He 
also found that the parasite had no difficulty in piercing the ootheca with its 
ovipositor. 
