﻿74 SJiVENTH ANNUAL KEPORT 



making, it is nevertheless hunted and destroyed by wood-peckers, and 

 is not without its insect parasites. Already, in 1856, Dr. Fitch, in his 

 first report as State Entomologist of New York, mentioned having 

 received from that veteran nuseryman, Mr. P. Barry, specimens of the 

 larviB which had been entirely devoured, so that nothing but the 

 shrivelled skin remained, by a number of small dull whitish grubs, 

 about one-tenth of an inch long, belonging, in all probability, to the 

 ChalcididoB, an extensive family of small, parasitic, wasp-like insects ; 

 and this Fall I have received what are evidently the same Chalcid lar- 

 vas from Mr. R. H. Titts, of Lawrence, Kansas, who gives the following 

 interesting account of their work : 



The tirst time we observed these parasites here this season, one of my neighbors 

 remarked that he thought that tliere was a mistake about a beetle laj ing the egg that 

 produced tlie borer. In hunting borers on my own place shortly after 1 found some of 

 them were sickly or stupid and of a peculiar yellowish color, different from natural. 

 One of these that I had not injured I left in the cavity where found, and closed up the 

 bark, fastening it with wax. After about ten diiys, on opening it again, I found the 

 parasites at work and the borer dead and partly eaten up ; after which 1 found them 

 frequently in different stages of growth, till the borer was all consumed and the para- 

 sites were of the size of tiiose sent you. Those weretak^n from a cavity with nothing 

 but a part of the skin of the borer left. I did not tind tliem again until about Septem- 

 ber 1st, after which time I think but few if any borers escaped them. I stopped hunting 

 borers after September 15th, satisfied that the parasites were doing a better job than 1 

 could. Others in this section are doing the same. I think that although the borers 

 were much more plenty this season than last there will be less beetles perfected to issue 

 than last year, on account of the parasites. In digging borers I found that if the mouth 

 of the liole in which they had entered the tree was opened the ants would go in and 

 destroy and carry the borer awaj^ in everj' instance, even clearing out the sawdust tO' 

 get at them. 



The following letter, received from Mr. C. R. Hoag, of Sedalia, the 

 fore part of December, was accompanied by the same parasite : 



Inclosed I send you the larva of an insect unknown to me; it is the second lot 

 that I have found in a precisely similar situation. I send them in the dust or borings 

 in wliich they were found ; they were found in an apple tree in the bed of the Flat- 

 headed Borer, after he had penetrated the solid wood of the tree. The borer had evi- 

 dently been destroyed by tlie small larva, as there was in this latter instance nopartof 

 the borer to be found, and in the former but small portions of the skin partly sur- 

 rounded bj' the small maggots. I am in hopes that they may prove to be the larva of an in- 

 sect that is a common enemy to the most destructive pestot tlie orchard. The ravages of 

 this borer during the past season, in this part of the country, have been unprecedented ; 

 it has been a great deal more numerous than the Saperda or Kound-headed Borer, that 

 works near the ground. Heretofore (in my experience) they have seldom attacked a 

 healthy and thrifty tree, but have confined their ravages to trees that have received a 

 severe check in transplanting and in bad usage generally. During the past season they 

 have attacked the healthy as well as the unhealthy trees. 



I have not succeeded in rearing the perfect fly from these small 

 maggot-like larvas, but there can be no doubt that it will prove as 

 Dr. Fitch surmised, to belong to the Chalcididce^ an extensive family 

 of small 4-winged flies of black or metallic colors, ever on the 

 alert for prey, and sometimes attacking the vegetable feeders at first 

 hand, but more often acting as secondary parasites. In the present 

 instance the minute mother fly must manage to insinuate herself in 



