PARASITES OF THE COTTON -WORM. 191 



the body, and then deposits them. The eggs in a few days hatch, and the young larvae, 

 which resemble minute white maggots, nourish themselves with the juices of their 

 foster-parent, which, however, continues to move about and feed until near the time 

 of its changing into a chrysalis, when the larvae of the ichneumon creep out by per- 

 forating the skin in various places, and each spinning itself up in a small oval silken 

 case, changes into a chrysalis, and after a certain period they emerge in the state of 

 complete ichneumons. 



It will be seen that there is a peculiarity attached to this ichneumon not included 

 in the above description, that of appropriating the chrysalis as well as the larvae of 

 other insects to the use of the young. All ichneumons that I ever read of spin their 

 own chrysalis, but this is the prince of parasites, for not content with eating the sub- 

 stance of his neighbor, he seizes also on his house. So far as I have read concerning 

 this curious family of insects, this is a nondescript. 



Thus is answered the question why the cotton-fly did not again eat up the scant 

 foliage which subsequently appeared on the stalks. This little usurper goes forth in 

 search of " whom he may devour," and as soon as he finds a house built and well pro- 

 visioned, he seizes upon it for his posterity, which he does in the following manner : 

 When he finds a cotton-worm he pierces it with the instrument with which its tail is 

 armed, and deposits an egg. The cotton- worm soon spins itself up into a case, there to 

 await the period of its perfection, which never arrives, for soon the egg of the ichneu- 

 mon hatches and falls to devouring his helpless companion. This work of extermina- 

 tion continues until there is not a vestige of the cotton- worm left. 1 venture to say 

 while I am now writing (1st of December) there is not an egg, chrysalis, or fly in the 

 confines of the United States. 



In 1851 Mr. Thomas Affleck, late of Brenham, Tex., then of Washing- 

 ton, Miss., whom we have had frequent occasion to refer to in this re- 

 port, in his Southern Rural Almanac for that year figured an ichneumon 

 parasite of the cotton- worm. It is impossible to say whether the yellow- 

 banded ichneumon or the ring-legged Pimpla is meant by this figure. 

 In the text Mr. Affleck says : 



We owed our exemption during the season of 1848 to the destruction of the cotton- 

 moth when in the chrysalis state by an ichneumon, the insect here represented. From 

 many scores of chrysalides which we had collected for observation these ichneumons 

 issued, one from each. The parent had deposited her egg within the shell of the chrysa- 

 lis, where it hatched, preyed upon the insect within, until time to undergo its own 

 transformations. 



The continued enormous production of cotton caused the excessive multiplication 

 of the cotton-moth, with whose increase multiplied the ichneumon a precious provis- 

 ion of the beneficent Creator, "who doeth all things well." 



Again, in the Department of Agriculture report for 1855, Mr. Glover 

 figured and described P. conquisitor, although he attempted to give it no 

 name. He says (p. Ill) : 



Some chrysalides of the cotton-caterpillar, which had been preserved during the 

 autumn of 1855 as an experiment to see whether they would live until the following 

 spring, having been hatched out prematurely by the heat of the room in which they 

 were kept, two ichneumon flies were produced of a slender shape and about half an 

 inch in length. The abdomen or body of the female was black, and marked with seven 

 light-colored, yellowish, narrow rings around it ; the head is black, with the eye* 

 brown, the antenna? long, jointed, and nearly black ; on the head were three ocelli ; 

 the thorax was blaok ; the wings transparent, of a rather yellowish tinge, veined with 

 black, and having a distinct black mark on the outer margin of the upper pair; the 

 first joint of the hind leg was comparatively large, thick, and of a brownish color; 



