102 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



V. T. Chambers, of Covington, Ky., numerous 



specimens of the hitherto uudescribeil beautiful 



large ChaU-is fly ligured herewith (Fig (!G), 



[FiK. a;.] 



Colors— Black and yellow . 



which he had taken from the cocoon of the 

 I'olyphemus moth, which is quite common, and 

 issues as early as the middle of Febniary in 

 that locality. He says, "I was "satisiied that 

 the cocoon did not contain a living Poljphcmus 

 and therefore opened it. It contained so little 

 besides these insects and their exuvite, as to 

 suggest strongly the old idea that the caterpillar 

 had been metamorphosed into them (as in a 

 sense it had) . There were 47 of them, of which 

 2:^) were females. As all the males, and some 

 of the females were dead when I opened the 

 cocoon, I think it likely that the former never 

 do emerge, and perhaps but few of the latter; 

 otherwise Polyphemus would soon be exter- 

 minated." 



We can very well imagine that most of these 

 Chalcis flies would die in their eflbrts to escape 

 from the tough cocoon of the Polyphemus, but 

 it so happens that these same parasites have 

 been found by Mrs. Mary Treat, of Vineland, 



with four yellow spo(a, and in the thighs having six • 

 eight prominent spines, the superior one divided into thr 

 or four. 



New Jersey, to prey upon the Cecropia worm, 

 from the cocoon of which they can much more 

 easily escape. We take pleasure, therefore, in 

 naming this pretty Chalcis fly in honor of that 

 lady. The same fly also attacks the Promethca 

 worm — another of our large native Silk- worms 

 — and Mrs. Treat has had a similar experience 

 with Mr. Chambers, of finding them dead in 

 its cocoon. She has upon two occasions found 

 cocoons with a dead Chalcis fly fast in the hole 

 which it had eaten to make its escape; and 

 upon cutting open such cocoons they were found 

 literally packed with dead Chalcis flies. It 

 would seem that they all make their escape 

 through the hole made by some one of their 

 number, and that if this particular one fails 

 iu the undei-taking, they all perish rather than 

 make holes for themselves. 



The Divorced Cryptus— (C/-y^j<i«« mincius, 

 Say; extremcitis, Cresson). — Another Ichneu- 

 mon fly infests the Cecropia worm in great 

 numbers, filling its cocoon so full of their own 

 thin parchment-like cocoons, that a transverse 

 section (Fig. 67) boars considei-able resemblance 

 to a honey-comb. The flies 

 issue in June, and the sexes 

 difl'er suflBciently to have 

 given rise to two species. 

 We have bred 7 ? and 29 c? 

 from a cocoon of the Cecro- 

 motli, and G ? from one 

 of the Promethea moth, all 

 the males agreeing with the 

 species described by Say as 

 viiiiciiis,* and all the fe- 

 males agreeing with that described afterwards 

 as extrematis by Mr. Cresson. 



*Sav does not mention whether his description was taken 

 from a tj' or ? . 



THE SPARROWS. 



The London Builder says: "One hundred 

 and eighteen Sparrows have been oft'ored upon 

 the altars of science. The contents of the stom- 

 achs of the victims have been examined, tabu- 

 lated and recorded. Three luliirits alone, out 

 of this hecatomb, were proved by the unsparing 

 search, guilty of having lived for the past four- 

 and-twenty hours upon grain. In fact, there 

 were three thieves out of the 118; all the other 

 victims had worked, more or less, for their liv- 

 ing. Beetles and grubs, and larvas of all obnox- 

 ious kinds had been their diet. In 7') of the 

 birds, infants of all ages, from the callow fledg- 

 ling to the little Pecksy and Flapsy that just 

 twitter along the ground, hardly any but insect 

 remains were detected." 



