PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 617 



to laying eggs, floated on distilled water and stifled with chloroform. 

 It was not treated with K H). 



From March to October, each complete cycle lasts from 24 to 29 days. 

 Later on, with the advance of cold, the period becomes lengthened. 



The bug has hitherto been seen by me at Pusa on mulberry, cotton 

 and Ficiis religiosa. If a close search be made it will be found to be 

 distributed widely. 



The nymphs as well as the females are parasitized by three species 

 of Chalcididse. Of the three, one species of Chalcidid parasitizes the 

 nymphs very largely, so much so that numbers of parasitized nymphs 

 may be seen on the infested plants. The parasitized nymph swells up, 

 beconies cylindrical with both the ends swollen, its colour turns to dirty 

 yellow and it resembles a cylinder in miniature lying loosely either in 

 the affected shoots or the axils of leaves. During the winter this parasite 

 has been found to hibernate in the pupal stage in the bodies of its host 

 which has segregated itself either in the cracks on the stem or curled-up 

 leaves where a number of females have congregated to pass the winter. 



Besides the three species of Chalcididas which parasitizes the nymphs 

 and the females, a Cecidomyiad fly* is parasitic upon the eggs, the nymphs 

 and the gravid females. The fly lays its eggs loosely on the female ovisac 

 and in some instances eggs were found amongst the eggs in the ovisac. 

 The maggot on hatching sucks the eggs dry and pupates within the ovisac. 

 The empty eggshells remain within the ovisac near the pupae of the fly. 

 In several cases the predaceous maggots were seen sucking the matured 

 females. The maggot fixes itself on the sternum of the female and 

 inserts its rostral setse so firmly that the female remains squirming or 

 shaking its legs. Only in a few cases has the maggot been seen attacking 

 the nymphs, whose shrivelled bodies were found interspersed on the 

 pupse. The adult Cecidomyiad is dark-pinkish with pale-stramineous 

 legs and antennae which are thinly hairy. The female is more robust 

 than the male and may be distinguished easily from the male on account 

 of her size and genitalia. The wings are clothed with small, black hairs 

 and the first tarsal joint is very small. The claws to tarsal joints are 

 simple, the thorax as well as the abdomen is thinly hairy. The fly is 

 prominent from August to November and thereafter hibernates in the 

 pupal stage amidst the colonies of females on the affected shoots but 

 mostly in the rugosities or deep cavities on the stems. 



The caterpillars of Euhlemma sp. (near quadrilineata) are also pre- 

 daceous on the nymphs and females. They devour these with avidity 

 and their pupse are found in the midst of colonies of nymphs and females. 



* This fly has since been named by Professor E. P. Felt as Diadiplosis indica. — 

 EdUar. 



