go PSYCHE [October 



had emerged and was found mating on April 19th. This species did not occur 

 again. It proved to be Pteromalus cuproideus Howard (i.\ccession No. 37511, 

 IlUnois State Laboratory of Natural History; and 4 females in collection U. S. 

 National Museum) and was first reared from this host by Howard (1897, pp. 28; 55). 



On April 23rd, 1908, the whole lot of host pupae were examined and all dis- 

 carded excepting those still infested with parasites. Seven or eight of the female 

 pupae were obtained which were wholly infested with another pteromalid, occurring 

 under the same conditions as the first species, namely, packed in the body of the 

 host pupae between the compact egg-mass. The host pupa was therefore far ad- 

 vanced in development before killed by the parasite; all of them were very dark in 

 color, and in some, the hairs from the body of the still unexcluded female moth were 

 present. 



The numbers of this other parasite found in the bodies of four female host pupae 

 was as follows: 



The meconial discharges were broken and scattered in quite a number of cases, 

 and these could not be counted from necessity. In a miscellaneous lot of this para- 

 site taken from the hosts, the proportion of the sexes in a total of 131 specimens was 

 10 males to 121 females or as 1 is to 12. This parasite proved to be a new genus and 

 species {Tritneptis hemerocampae) of the subfamily Merisinae of the Pteromalidae 

 and is described in following. It was again present in the specimens sent in from 

 Chicago by Mr. Davis, though both the hosts and the parasites were dead; in a few 

 cases, the entire host pupa was compacted with them. 



The peculiarity of these two cases of parasitism rests in the fact of the far ad- 

 vanced stage of development of the host pupae, which in spite of the parasitism had 

 advanced almost as far as the final ecdysis, and the eggs had become perfect in the 

 ovaries. It is usually the case with primary parasites of this family that the nearly 

 full-grown larva is killed, or death results immediately following the penultimate 

 ecdysis, or after preparation for it. In both cases, I do not believe that there can be 

 much doubt but that the parasites are primary, though in a single instance, in one 

 of the female host cocoons was found the decomposed remains of what appeared to 



