CALIFORNIA PHRYGANIDIAN. , 565 



windows. The effectiveness of this parasite wherever it 

 occurred is shown by the fact that of lOO chrysalids ex- 

 amined on November i, 67 were parasitized by this ich- 

 neumon; and from 144 chrysalids gathered and kept in 

 the laboratory but 11 moths issued, 99 of the chrysalids 

 being parasitized by Pini^la heh^'endsii Cress., 7 chrysal- 

 ids containing other parasites, and the others being dead 

 from various causes. 



Although most abundant on the live-oaks (^c^. agrifo- 

 lia) the larvae attack other oaks. We have found them 

 on ^uercus lobata, ^. kelloggii, ^. dumosa and =^. 

 doitglassii. The live-oaks in this vicinity begin to put 

 out new leaves about January i, but in the case of many 

 of the trees badly defoliated by the larvse in the autumn, 

 new leaves appeared much earlier than the first of Janu- ' 

 ary. The wintering of the insect in a larval condition is 

 only possible in the evergreen oaks, and they are thus the 

 natural and usual host of the pest. At the time of the 

 hatching of the first of the autumn brood of eggs (latter 

 part of November) the leaves of the deciduous oaks begin 

 to fall. But, oddly, the eggs were found to be deposited 

 on the leaves of both the white oak and Douglas's oak 

 (deciduous oaks), and the larvae hatched only to die of 

 starvation. By this suicidal means the pest aids in de- 

 pleting its own numbers. The new leaves of the decidu- 

 ous oaks appear about April i, before the eggs for the 

 summer brood of larvee are deposited. These eggs, 

 therefore, can safely be laid on the leaves of these trees, 

 but the eggs laid by the fall moths on the foliage of these 

 trees give up their young to certain destruction. 



As to the number of generations which appear annu- 

 ally of this insect, Henry Edwards (quoted by Packard 

 ■in Hayden's Report of the U. S. Geological Survey of 

 the Territories for 1875, and in Forest Insects, Fifth Re- 



