109 
and frequently during the month of June. In the act of oviposition the 
fly stealthily crawls onto the beetle while the latter is feeding or copulat- 
ing at night and proceeds to lay one or more eggs, which it fastens to 
the body of the beetle by means of a glutinous secretion. The eggs (Fig. 
37) are light brown, oval, measuring .36 mm. by .66 mm. They are 
frequently laid on the abdomen, usually at the side and near the edge 
of the elytron (Pl. X, Fig. 40) or they may even be slipped beneath the 
wing cover. They are sometimes laid on the hard parts of the body, 
such as the elytra and thorax, but it is questionable whether larvae 
hatching from eggs thus deposited are able to enter the body of the host. 
The larvae (Fig. 36) enter the abdominal cavity of the beetle and devour 
the fatty tissues, finally attacking the vital organs and thus killing the 
host. Before succumbing to the attacks of the parasitic larvae, in fact 
several days before death, the beetle almost invariably enters the soil 
to a depth of several inches, sometimes 6 or 8, the larvae pupating within 
the body cavity and remaining there as a rule until spring of the follow- 
ing year. 
Fic. 37. Cryptomeigenia theutis Walk., eggs, much enlarged. 
This species is the most frequent beetle parasite according to our 
observations, which include over 850 rearing records from the following 
localities: Manhattan, Kan. (J. W. McColloch and W. P. Hayes), 
Greenwood, Miss. (J. M. Langston), Wakeman, O. (W. B. Hall), 
Clarksville, Tenn. (H. Fox and P. Wyatt), Richmond, Va. (T. S. Her- 
bert), Tappahannock, Va. (H. Fox), Milford and Sheldon, IIl., Akron, 
Huntingburg, Lafayette, Orleans, Princeton, and Vincennes, Ind., Battle 
Creek, East Leroy, Farmington, Imlay City, Mendon, Port Huron, and 
Richland, Mich., Napoleon and Swanton, O., and Trout Lake, Wis. 
(members of Lafayette Station staff, including R. J. Kewley, D. G. 
Tower, A.-F. Satterthwait, S. L. Mason, F. A. Fenton, H. J. Hart, C. 
F. Turner, and the writer). The names in parenthesis indicate the col- 
lectors, who greatly helped the investigation by sending in specimens of 
