1896.] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 1 73 



"A NEW PARASITE," FURTHER REMARKS. 



By Frederick Blanchard. 



The interesting article by Mr. Lafler in the News of February 

 recalls an observation of my own made many years ago, which 

 may throw some light on one of the questions raised as to how 

 the Tachinid fly got at the provisions. 



While working on the railroad, on a very hot day, a large blue 

 wasp was seen dragging a grasshopper along the ground. The 

 grasshopper was bulkier than itself, but the wasp was vigorous 

 enough to handle it with comparative ease. Soon, in the course 

 of a yard or so, it arrived at a hole it had evidently previously 

 excavated, dropped the hopper and dived into the hole, throwing 

 out some sand; it then backed out quickly, and making two or 

 three rapid turns about the hole it rushed in again; this move- 

 ment took place two or three times when, at last, it seized the 

 grasshopper which had lain unmolested during the time and 

 dragged it into the hole. Meantime I had noticed two quite 

 small and very active flies hovering about and occasionally 

 alighting in the vicinity of the hole, but paying no attention to 

 the grasshopper. Whenever the wasp appeared they w-ere driven 

 away for the instant, but immediately returned. When the wasp 

 disappeared with the grasshopper there was a sudden and instant 

 copulation of the flies, and in the same second, almost, the 9 

 extruded some small masses of eggs, more or less attached to- 

 gether, on the margin of the hole and flew away. The wasp, 

 after an absence limited to a few seconds only, reappeared and at 

 once set to work in the liveliest manner to scratch gravel into the 

 hole, and with the very first grains of sand the eggs were also 

 tumbled in, and no doubt reached their intended destination. 



The flies showed no desire to enter the hole themselves, but 

 the wasp evidently suspected that they were in the neighborhood 

 for no good purpose. 



While I have used the term eggs, I am strongly of the impres- 

 sion that larvae were extruded by the female fly, and that they 

 showed some motion. 



Mr. Robert T. Saunders, of Maiden, Mass., intends to spend the 

 Summer at Rainier, Washington, for his health, and will devote consider- 

 able time to collecting and studying entomology. 



