I 



XXIII CHALCIDIDAE 545 



In the cells of the same bee Newport discovered another 

 curious parasitic Chalcid, Anthophorahia retusa} The male has 

 short wings, and the compound eye is replaced by an ocellus 

 on each side of the head, the female having fully developed 

 wings and eyes. A variation may occur in the metamorphosis 

 of this Insect, inasmuch as when the growth is completed during 

 the month of August, the Insect changes to a pupa, the imago 

 appears ten or twelve days thereafter, and the perfect Insect then 

 hibernates for seven or eight months ; but should the completion 

 of growth be deferred till after the end of August, hibernation 

 takes place in the larval condition. A large and brilliant Chalcid 

 JEucharis myrmeciae, has been described by Cameron as preying 

 on the formidable Australian ants of the genus Myrmecia. 



The development of Smicra clavipes has been partially de- 

 scribed by Henneguy.^ This Insect lives in the interior of the 

 aquatic larva of Stratiomys strigosa, a Dipterous Insect. As 

 many as fifty eggs of the parasite are found in one larva, but a 

 large number of embryos die during development, so that he has 

 never found more than two or three well-grown larvae in one 

 Stratiomys larva. It has been ascertained that the eggs of many 

 of these parasitic Insects are deficient in yolk, and the ovum of 

 Smicra is said to obtain the nutritive materials necessary for 

 the development of the embryo from the blood of its host by 

 endosmosis. For a long time after the assumption of the larval 

 condition, the larva appears to nourish itself only at the expense 

 of the blood of its host. The segmentation of the ovum is total, 

 and a single embryonic membrane appears at an early period, 

 before the formation of the embryo, by a process very different 

 from that giving origin to the amnion of the majority of 

 Insects. 



A very interesting sketch of the development of Encyrtus 

 fuscicollis has been given by Bugnion.^ This small parasite 

 passes its earlier stages in the interior of the larva of Hypono- 

 meuta cognatella or other Lepidoptera. The female Encyrtus 

 deposits her eggs in the interior of a caterpillar, in the form of 

 a series of 5 to 100 or more eggs enclosed in a sac ; the origin 



^ According to Ashmead, P. ent. Soc. Washington, ii. 1893, p. 228, this genus 

 should take the name of Melittohia. 



2 Ann. Nat. Hist. (6) x. 1892, p. 271. 



^ Rec. Zool. Suisse, v. 1891, pp. 435-534. Cf. Koulaguine, Congr. internat. Zool. 

 ii. 1892, pt. i. p. 265. 



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