38 RESULTS FROM GIPSY MOTH PARASITE LABORATORY, 



eggs being conveyed to the caterpillars by means of some inter- 

 mediate carrier. In the Coleoptera cited above the carrier is fre- 

 quently a })arasitic bee ui)on which, by means of their claws, the 

 triunguUns attach themselves and are conveyed to the nest of their 

 host. With Pcrilampus, should this method prove to be the one 

 which really takes place, the intermediate carrier might be any of 

 the primary parasites wliich attack HijpJiantria; that is, the hymenop- 

 terous parasites Limnerium or Ajmnteles, or the tachinid Varichxta. 

 The planidium seems more or less fitted for this sort of a life and is 

 apparently analogous to the triungulin of the coleopterous })arasites. 

 The cliitinous plates with which it is armored are especially service- 

 able in preventing injury of various kinds, and the mandibles and 

 hooks and spines would serve it very well as a means of clinging to 

 its conveyer. 



Varicliseta as a conveyer of the planidia would expose the young 

 Ferilampus to one more vicissitude, as it does not oviposit upon the 

 caterpillars, but deposits young maggots u})on the leaves of the food 

 plant of its host. These maggots, should they by good fortune 

 haj)pen to have been placed upon a leaf wliich is later crawled over 

 by a caterpillar, fasten themselves upon their host when the o})por- 

 tunity offers. Perilampus then would twice be subjected to the 

 same conditions as these maggots, and their success in finding a host 

 would depend entirely upon whether or not caterpillars came within 

 their reach. 



The other method, wliich seems much more plausible, is that of 

 oviposition upon the food plant in the vicinity of a colony of the 

 caterpillars. This would do away mth the necessity of an inter- 

 mediate carrier, but would expose the deUcate eggs to great danger 

 unless they hatched immediately after deposition. 



Both theories have their faults and it may easily be that neither 

 is correct. They are offered simply as suggestions to anyone who 

 has the opportunity to make observations upon tliis parasite, in 

 the hope that they will be of assistance in completing the knowledge 

 of tills strange life cycle. The former hypothesis has the advantage 

 of a parallel in the parasitic Coleoptera, wlnle sometliing similar to 

 the latter is known to occur in certain of the tacliinid parasites 

 (notably Varicliseta, as mentioned above) wliich deposit young 

 maggots upon the leaves, the maggots attaching themselves to the 

 caterpillar as it crawls over the leaf upon wliich they are located. 



Wliile the eggs of Perilampus have not been observed after deposi- 

 tion, those contained in the oA^arian tubes, in one case apparently 

 mature, have been examined. They are of the usual elongate-oval 

 shape, not stalked, and wliitish in color. 



