in very large numbers in ground infested by Lachnosterna larve. He 
Says: “One can scarcely dig for half an hour in any soil in this part 
of the country, without meeting with a curious egg-shaped cocoon, of a 
pale golden brown or buff color, and with a soft exterior surface, in 
touch as well as in color reminding one of the punk used by dentists. 
Upon cutting this cocoon open, it ‘will be found to consist of about a 
dozen delicate layers, the outer ones soft and loosely spun, the inner 
ones more and more compact and paler in color. Within this cocoon, 
if fresh, there will be found a whitish grub which, though lacking legs, 
has the joints of the body, at the sides, swollen so as to look like the fleshy 
pseudopods possessed by many larve. * * * From having repeat-— 
edly found the head parts of some Lamellicorn larva attached to these 
cocoons, I had long suspected that such larvee formed the food of this” 
Tiphia, and on car ‘fully examining these head-parts I recognized them 
as belonging to the common white grub. But all doubt as to this fly 
being parasitic on said white grub ceased when, in 1872, Mr. A. W. 
Smith, of St. Louis, brought me a number of ‘the cocoons which he 
had taken from a low part of his farm on the Illinois bottom, where 
the white grub was very thick, and the yellow cocoons so numerous as 
to attract attention.”* 
Ophion bifoveolatum is likewise reported by Riley as a white grub 
parasite (Proc. Ent. Soc. Washington, Vol. II., p. 134), and this was 
quite probably the species of Ophion bred at my office in 1886. From 
white grubs brought to the insectary April 27 the specimen emerged 
May 11, but was lost from my collections before being determined spe- 
cifically. 
A tachinid fly has also been found parasitic on the grubs (Proc. 
Ent. Soc. Washington, Vol. IT., p. 134), and a second fly, Microphthalma 
nigra, Macq., has been repeatedly bred by us from the dead bodies 
of white grubs. The habits of the family Dexide, to which this last- 
mentioned insect belongs, make it doubtful, however, if these flies may 
not have developed from eggs laid on the bodies of grubs already dead. 
Tiphia inornata, mentioned above, ought probably to be called a 
predaceous rather than a parasitic insect, as it attacks the grub from 
without, and devours it bodily. Ants destroy white grubs in breeding 
cages,+ and very possibly attack them sometimes in the field. It is quite 
likely that various other predaceous insect species, ground beetles espe- 
* “Tinhia inornata, Larva.—Length 0.25-0.50 inch when full grown; greatest 
diameter 1/3 the length; largest in middle; 12 joints and a subjoint, exclusive of 
head. Head bent over on the breast. Color translucent-white, with a broad, trans- 
verse, opaque wrinkle around each joint; on all the stigmata-bearing joints except 
1, this wrinkle is constricted into two ellipsoidal pieces dorsally, strongly bulging 
laterally into semi-oval tubercles, like pseudopods, and subobsolete ventrally. lLa- 
brum edged with brown. Stigmata small, circular, brown, and placed on posterior 
part of joint 1, and on anterior part of joints 4-11. Anal slit transverse. 
“TDeseribed from 13 specimens. The color becomes more yellowish in alcohol. © 
“Tmago.—This insect is very variable in size, 2 male, 7 female specimens which 
I have bred from the cocoon ranging from 0.35 inch to 0.68 inch in length of body. 
The wings are either very faintly or more deeply smoky-yellow. The color is jet 
black, but on my largest female a faint bluish or purplish hue is noticeable. In 
studying by the light of the specimens before me, Say’s three descriptions which 
follow, I am forced to the conclusion that they all refer to but one species. Certain 
features common to all the specimens are curiously omitted in one or other of the 
descriptions, and inserted in one or both the others, while every feature mentioned 
belongs to the one species taken in its variations. It becomes a question, in such a 
case, which name to use, but I employ the first because it is appropriate, and seems 
to have been the only one used by subsequent authors.’’—C. V. Ritry. 
+ Fifth Ann. Rep. Vt. Agr. Exper. Station (1891), p. 153. 
