29 



This little Chalcid was discovered by Mr. Giffard in 1907, bred 

 from larva of some wasp or bee in its nest in decayed branch of 

 tree.* In the latter part of the same year, I found several nests 

 of the leaf-cutter bee {Mcgachilc paluianim ) in which most of 

 the cells had been parasitized by this Chalcid. I have also reared 

 them in the laboratory upon larvae of three different wasps: 

 Odyiicroiis nigripciinis, Pisoii hospcs, and ScclipJiroii cacmcii- 

 tariitni. In March, 1908, I first discovered them breeding on 

 the larvae of the bud worm {Ercunetis fJarisfriata Wlsm.) in 

 sugar cane at the Experiment Station. Of a lot of fifty cocoons 

 of the bud worm, collected at one time, six, or twelve per cent., 

 contained a bud worm parasitized by Meliffobia. Five of them 

 had eggs of McUttobia (seven, nine, eleven, twenty, and thirty 

 respectively per bud worm) scattered on the surface, which were 

 allowed to hatch, and reared to maturity. The sixth cocoon con- 

 tained thirty-five pupae of McUttobia which had consumed a bud 

 worm within its cocoon, and were lying in contact with its dried 

 up remains. 



Apparentl}" the female McUttobia enters the bud worm's cocoon 

 before it is entirely completed, stings the worm and deposits eggs 

 upon her. Or it may be that after entering the cocoon, she waits 

 till the bud worm is assuming the inactive condition previous to 

 the transformation to pupa, and then deposits her eggs upon her; 

 either stinging the bud worm to prevent further transformation, 

 or else the young larvae hatch and begin eating so quickly that 

 further transformation is prevented. 



The Qgg is white, cvlindrical. slightly curved, ends rounded, 

 0.3 mm. long by 0.12 mlm. wide. They are laid indiscriminately 

 on the surface of host, singly or several together. 



They hatch very quickly and the young larvae feed externally 

 upon the bud worm, becoming full-grown in about a week. They 

 are footless grubs just a little more than i mm. in length, and 

 transform to pupae in two or three days. They rest in the pupa 

 stage about two weeks. So many of this parasite develop upon 

 one host, that it should be a very valuable parasite upon the bud 



* Proe Haw. Ent. Soc, I, Part 4, p. 121. 1907. 



