554 PROCEEDING 3 OF THE THIRD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 



of the nymphs and females of the former were parasitized and an 

 examination o| the affected cotton shoots in the middle and end of 

 December showed that P. hirsutus was present in larger numbers than 

 P. corymbatus. The three species of Chalcididae found to parasitize 

 P. hirsutus are probably the same which parasitize P. corymbatus, but 

 in the absence of specific determination I am chary of confirming this 

 view. The identification of Indian Chalcididse is a tedious business 

 and we have to wait for long months or even years to get the identifica- 

 tion of a hmited number of specimens even. I hope to send these 

 specimens out for identification soon and on receipt of identifications 

 will communicate them to you if desired. 



A Cecidomyiad* has also been found to prey upon the nymphs and 

 . adults of this species. The predaceous maggot, which is pale-yellow, 

 pointed at one end and bluntly rounded at the other, may be seen within 

 or near the eggmasses. I have seen these maggots attacking and sucking 

 dry the nymphs and gravid females as well as those that have finished 

 laying eggs. In this case I have not as yet seen the predaceous maggots 

 sucking dry the eggs whose empty eggshells lie stuck upon the ovisac-- 

 floss, though I have seen them attacking the eggs of P. hirsutus. It 

 is just possible that this observation has escaped me though they might 

 be attacking the eggs as well. The maggot when full-fed pupated in 

 situ and the adult fly emerged leaving the empty puparium stuck up 

 in the cottony floss of the female ovisac. An examination of a large 

 number of ovisacs under the microscope revealed the presence of 3 to 

 as many as 7 empty pale-yellow cocoons of the predaceous Cecidomyiad 

 lying bolt upright with prominent frontal sutures on them through 

 which the adult flies had escaped. These cocoons on account of their 

 pale-yellow colour are seen in good contrast against the whitish back- 

 ground formed by the coalescence of two, three or even more ovisacs 

 of the female mealy-bug. This Cecidomyiad fly is the same as the 

 one that preys upon the eggs, nymphs and females of P. hirsutus causing 

 Tnkra disease of mulberry plants and the fact has already been referred 

 to by me under a separate paper on " Tuhra disease of Mulberry " read 

 . at this Meeting. 



Besides the Chalcididse and Cecidomyiad fly parasites and preda- 

 tors on the cotton mealy-bug, Eublemma quadrilineata has been 

 also found predacious on the mealy-bug. The caterpillars have 

 been seen to clear off whole colonies of them on the shoots, but their 

 appearance is very spasmodic and cannot be relied upon to be used 

 as agents of destruction of the cotton mealy-bug. The very same 



* Since named by Professor E. P. Felt as Diadiplosis indica, n. sp. — Editor 



