190 REPORT UPON COTTON INSECTS. 



never been able to observe any parasites, although he admitted that 

 such might exist; and Professor Kiley, in the 1878 circular of this 

 department, states the fact that no enemies of the cotton -worm have 

 hitherto been reported. We mention these two instances in particular, 

 because the undoubted ability of these naturalists renders their state- 

 ments all the more singular. The fact is that not only were parasites 

 well known to many observers throughout the South, but no less than 

 six accounts had been published with tolerable popular descriptions of 

 Plmpla conquisitor (a large ichneumon which extensively infests the last 

 brood of the worms, issuing from the chrysalis in midwinter or early 

 spring), and two very fair figures had also been published. 



In 1847 Dr. D. B. Grorham, of Bayou Sara, La., in the same paper in 

 which he proposed the migration theory, drew up a description of "the 

 yellow-banded ichneumon," as we shall call P. conquisitor in this report. 

 This was, as we think, the first notice of any parasite. Dr. Gorham's 

 description was as follows : 



Let us take a pocketful of these home and place them beneath tumblers, aud wait 

 patiently to see what they will produce. If I had found a treasure my delight could 

 not have been greater than that I experienced at the idea of unraveling the mystery. 

 But man is prone to disappointment, as we shall soon sec. About the 15th of Novem- 

 ber the insect appeared, but, mirabile dictu, as different from the cotton-fly as it is pos- 

 sibly to suppose one insect could differ from another. Ifc belonged altogether to a 

 different family, a description of which I give as follows: 



Antennas filiform, black, six lines in length. Palpi four ; two external and two in- 

 termediate, the external white, twice the length of the other two, in shape angular, the 

 angle projecting externally. The two middle are straight, scarcely perceptible over 

 a strong light; they are of a dark color. Wings, four; hymenopterous, incumbent, 

 extending to and exactly even with the end of the tail ; shape of the wings, which are 

 small and extremely delicate and thin, is like that of a fan. Front legs half the length 

 of the posterior of a uniform orange color: the intermediate legs very little longer 

 than the anterior*; the thighs of a deep orange color, the rest of the leg annulated with 

 black and white, the rings being larger than those of the intermediate. The trunk 

 is of a uniform shining black, as would be the upper surface of the abdomen also were 

 it not for the very narrow white bauds which connect the black scales together, giving 

 to the abdomen an annulated appearance; these white lines do not encircle the abdo- 

 men, but terminate uniformly on the sides. On the under surface of the abdomen 

 these white rings again commence, which are much larger than those on the upper 

 surface, causing the abdomen to look almost white. The tail terminates in a bifurca- 

 ted sheath inclosing a long blunt sting, projecting considerably beyond the tail, and 

 forming a very prominent feature in the general figure of the insect. This is a small 

 Blender insect, much longer than the honey-bee, but not so thick. 



Now, it is evident from its specific character, as well as from its parasitic nature, this 

 insect belongs to that numerous class called ichneumons, of which there are upwards 

 of five hundred species. As I am not at present in possession of any practical work 

 on entomology, I cannot determine the species of this ichneumon, but to show that it 

 differs in some respects from the family to which it belongs, I will quote a paragraph 

 from a work before me, in which are set forth some peculiarities belonging to that 

 class of insects as a genus : 



The whole of this singular genus have been denominated parasitical on account of 

 the very extraordinary manner in which they provide for the future support of their 

 young. The fly feeds on the honey of flowers, and when about to lay her eggs, perfo- 

 rates the body of some other insect or its larvae with its sting or instrument at the end of 



