Dec, 1921 Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 129 



NOTES ON PARASITES OF EPARGYREUS TITYRUS 

 FABRICIUS. 



By E. L. Bell, Flushing, N. Y. 



A considerable number of larvse of Epargyreus tityrus Fa- 

 bricius were collected at Flushing, N. Y., during the latter part 

 of September, 1920, in an endeavor to obtain some of the para- 

 sites of this species of butterfly. One of the larvse died and 

 dropped from its nest of leaves of the locust tree and in its 

 place there were a number of small, fuzzy, white cocoons. 

 These cocoons were placed in a cloth covered jelly glass with 

 a little sand in the bottom and a few small sticks placed up- 

 right for the insects to crawl on upon emergence, and kept in 

 a warm room. About once in two weeks a little water was 

 poured on the cloth covering the top of the glass which, of 

 course, went through and slightly moistened the sand in the 

 bottom. 



The adults began to emerge from the cocoons on December 22, 

 thirteen emerging that day, twelve on December 23, two on 

 December 24, two on December 25, one on December 26, two 

 on December 2y, four on December 28, two on December 29, 

 and one on January 2, a total of thirty-nine. They did not 

 seem to care to crawl up on the sticks placed in the glass for 

 that purpose, but seemed to prefer to crawl up on the side of 

 the glass just above the sand or to remain on the sand itself. 

 They made no attempt to fly when disturbed but merely dropped 

 off the side of the glass or ran down to the sand. Several 

 more clusters of these cocoons of the parasite were found with- 

 in the cocoons spun by the tityrus larvse in the sphagnum 

 moss at the bottom of the breeding cage, the larvae having been 

 destroyed after spinning the cocoons, but before pupation. 

 These parasites proved to be Apanteles argynnidis, described by 

 C. V. Riley in Scudder's Butterflies of New England, 1889, 

 Volume 3, page 1904, bred from Argynnis cybele Fabricius, by 

 W. H. Edwards. 



