180 Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 
MYODITES. 
M. fasciatus Say. 
Myodites are found on blossoms but they take flight so quickly 
when alarmed, that they are quite difficult to catch. 
STYLOPIDA. 
XENOS. 
X. peckii Kby. 
A very curious genus that is parasitic in the bodies of wasps. 
During 1900 and i1go1 I captured a number of wasps that were 
infected with these very interesting little creatures. The figures 
given in Packard’s Guide to the Study of Insects, p. 482-483, for 
Stylops childreni are exactly those of Xenos pecku as I have 
been able to identify the species. Our talented and lamented 
friend, H. G. Hubbard, has given a most interesting account of 
the rearing of Xenos from a colony of wasps in Fla. See Can. 
Entomologist, Oct., 1892, p. 259. I have one of these specimens 
and it only differs from mine in being of a pale color, mine being 
sooty black. 1 have hatched Xenos from the following wasps, 
viz.: Amnophila urnaria, Polistes fuscatus, Prionyx atrata, Sphex 
ichneumonea, Odynerius molestus. 
I have pinned in my box with Xenos the following host wasps, 
Viz: 
Poslistes 5, Prionyx 3, Amnophila 2, Sphex and Odynerus one 
each. And this is about the proportion in which I found they 
were infected. I confined the .infected wasps in tumbler with 
false bottom of screen wire, first putting in bit of blotter to absorb 
moisture that might run down. I fed the wasps jelly and water, 
which they greedily ate, first convincing themsclves that they could 
not escape. Stylopized individuals appeared during June, July, 
August, September and October. Most of the male Xenos were 
hatched in August. Several wasps died before the beetles 
hatched. From one of these I hatched the beetle after the wasp 
had been dead two days; from another dead wasp containing onlv 
female Nenos, a lot of the minute larve hatched and crawled out 
on the tips of the hairs of the wasp and died there. The activity 
of the male Xenos, so well described by Mr. Hubbard in the 
article above referred to, is simply astonishing, and it is no wonder 
that the creature wears itself out and dies in 20 or 30 minutes. 
If the wasp can catch the Xenos she makes short work of it. In 
trying to take out of tumbler a male Xenos I allowed it to escape 
and it darted away like a flash. The Xenos when hatched is jet, 
opaque black, the fan-like wings when fresh have a beautiful 
mother of pearl iridescent tinge. The body is very flexible and 
74 
