50 



FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT 



was quite abundant last summer, as from one lot of 1G2 Carpocapsa 

 cocoons I obtained 21 parasites — all of them females but one. It is a 

 widely distributed, and common species. The second parasite may- 

 be called the 



Delicate Long-sting {Macrocentrus delicaUts Cress.). — It has 

 recently been described by Mr. E. T. Cresson, (Transactions Am. Ent. 

 Soc, IV, p. 178), and is a somewhat variable species, occurring 

 throughout the Eastern, Middle and Western States, and in Mexico 

 I subjoin a description, drawn up from my bred specimens : 



[Fig. 27.] 



(5*— Length 0.25 ; expanse 0.45 inch. 

 Slender. Color pale, polisla'd, honey- 

 yellow ; unifoniily and sparselj^ pube- 

 scent ; tinged with brown snperiorly, 

 the basal joint of abdomen and a me- 

 dio-dorsal line on the other joints being 

 quite brown. Head, with the eyes, 

 (except at disc), and a spot between 

 ocelli, brown-black ; palpi long and al- 

 most white ; antennae ] longer than the 

 whole body, about 48-joints, exclusive 

 of bulbus, curled at tip, the ends of 

 basal joints and the whole of apical 

 joints dusky. Tho7-ax, with the sutures 

 well defined, and two small triangular 

 black spots behind front tegul.T?, the 

 metathorax strongly trilobed ; legs 

 very long, pale honey-yellow, with tips 

 of tibiae and tarsi faintly dusky; wings 

 yellowish, hyaline and iridescent, with 

 the veins luteous, and the stigma pale 

 honej^-yellow. 



$. — Rather larger, and with the ab- 

 domen somewhat paler, otlierw se sim- 

 ilarly marked. Ovipositor yellow, 1-5 

 longer than body, the sheaths quite 

 i:)ilose, and inclining to fuscous. 

 Described from 2 ? 's, 1 c? . 



It is a graceful fly, with very long antenna and legs, and the 

 female with a long ovipositor (Fig. 27). The color is pale honey-yel- 

 low, inclining to brown above. The unfortunate Apple-worm is pro- 

 bably pierced while yet in the fruit, as it always succumbs soon after 

 forming its cocoon, and before changing to chrysalis ; while in the 

 case of Pim2)la^ it is probably attacked either while leaving the fruit 

 or after having spun its cocoon. The larva of the Delicate Long sting 

 forms, for itself, within the cocoon of its victim, a sufficiently tough, 

 thin, oblong-oval, shiny, brown cocoon, from which the perfect fly 

 issues by cutting open a lid at one end. 



As both of these parasites transform within the Carpocapsa 

 cocoon, it is next to impossible, and quite impracticable, to separate 

 friend from foe in removing and destroying the contents of the band- 



