THE ORANGE DOG. 139 



A great deal can be accomplished towards reducing the numbers of 

 the Orange Dog, by destroying the butterflies j the most effective imple- 

 ment for this purpose is a light fowling-piece, loaded with dust shot 

 or coarse salt. It may seem somewhat ridiculous to advocate the shoot- 

 ing of butterflies, but an insect which has a spread of wiog of four or 

 five inches affords a by no means despicable object for target practice. 

 A more certain method for those not skilled at shooting on the wing is 

 to attract the butterflies iroin a distance by planting in some conven- 

 ient place a bed of flowering plants. It is a common sight to see a 

 dozen or more individuals of this butterfly hovering over a garden bed 

 of Phlox or Zsenias, within easy range of the drowsy orange- grower, 

 as he takes his midday siesta upon the veranda. What a loss of oppor- 

 tunity it is to allow these foes to escape and continue their havoc in the 

 orange grove. 



PARASITES. A Tachwa fly, with a hairy body, and somewhat larger 

 than a common house-fly, which it superficially resembles, attacks the 

 caterpillars when partly grown, and deposits upon each several elon- 

 gate, oval, white eggs ; these hatch maggots, which penetrate the skin 

 of their host and feed upon its body-contents, eventually killing the 

 worm. The tachinized caterpillar usually attempts to pupate, but 

 strength fails, and it dies suspended in its silken loop. The parasitic 

 maggots eat their way out and drop to the ground, in which they form 

 oval puparia. They emerge as flies in twelve or fifteen days, or, if the 

 season is far advanced, remain in the ground during the two or three 

 months of winter, and issue with the return of warm weather in Feb- 

 ruary. From four to eight flies are bred from a single Orange Dog. 



Chalcis robuata Cresson. (Fig. 56.) From the chrysalis of Papilio 

 cresphomes there sometimes issues, instead of the butterfly, a four- 



FIG. 56. Chalcis robusta. (Original.) 



winged fly. This parasite is a large and handsome member of a family, 

 the Chalcididae, composed for the most part of minute forms. It is 

 8.4 mm (-^Q- inch) long ; in color black, with golden-yellow legs. The pos- 

 terior thighs are swollen, and adorned with an oblique band of black 



