50 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [April, 



cell of its devoured host, though three or four crawled out and 

 spun up against the glass. This species has heretofore been 

 known to prey on the larvae of another Hickory Tortricid which 

 feeds on the leaves, Acrobasis carycz Grote, Papilio I, 13 and 14. 

 It is much smaller than the Pimpla, which may be accounted for 

 by the fact that the larva of the latter wastes none of its substance 

 in forming a cocoon, and the perfect insect appears much larger 

 than its host. 



The moth was courteously determined by Prof C. H. Fernald, 

 and proves to be a Tortricid long known to microlepidopterists 

 as an inhabitant of Hickory-nut hulls. It was first described by 

 Fitch (N. Y. Agric. Rept. xvi, 459, 1856) under the name Ephip- 

 pophora caryana, now Grapholitha; and again by Shimer (Trans. 

 Am. Ent. Soc. II, 394) as Grapholitha carycB. The larva when 

 full grown excavates a cell in the hull several times lareer than itself, 

 which it lines with a silky gum. It is then about . 25 inch, in 

 length, white, except a luteous head, and i6-footed. The pupa 

 is pale clay colored, . 20 inch, long, and has on the posterior mar- 

 gin of each segment a transverse row of erect teeth which enables 

 it to move about its large cell with great ease. The anterior wing 

 cover of the moth is dusky black, with a sprinkling of scales — 

 golden, purple and blue, and a silvery blotch near the tip. Ex- 

 panse .50 to .60 inch. 



The nuts attacked in their earlier stages usually abort and fall, 

 or fail to produce a perfect kernel. In furnishing these beautiful 

 parasites nature has been very kind to the country and village 

 boys, as without this protection Hickory-nut hunting would not 

 often be one of their chief autumnal pleasures. 



A full grown larva, while under observation, stepped from the 

 table, but like its leaf-rolling kindred, it let itself down very gently 

 by a suddenly improvised thread. This was rather a surprise, as 

 it is not known to leave the interior of the hull voluntarily till it 

 comes forth with wings. Some evolutionists may interpret this 

 as proof of an ancestry that had business in the outside world. 



In compliance with my request, Mr. E. T. Cresson has kindly 

 furnished a description of the Pimpia. 



[Pimpla grapholithae n. sp.— •$ . Head rufopiceous, smooth and shining; 

 vertex, face and mandibles, except tips, fusco-testaceous; palpi and scape 

 beneath white, remainder of antennae black; thorax smooth and polished, 

 mpunctate, fulvous or honey yellow; metathorax piceous; tegulse white; 



