8 



BULLETIN" 293, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



longipennis. Sarcophagids were continually noted to larviposit on 

 nymphs left comatose upon the open prairie, after having been stimg 

 by a wasp {Priononyx atrata Lep.). In not a single instance was 

 it possible to note a sarcophagid endeavoring to strike a moving 

 nymph or flying adult. 



When large numbers of the grasshoppers were molting at approxi- 

 mately the same time the familiar noise of hundreds of female sar- 

 cophagids in search of their victim was easily heard. Hot, sunny 

 weather greatly stimulated the activities of the flies, as well as those 

 of the grasshoppers, whereas cold, cloudy, or rainy weather invari- 

 ably checked them. 



The female, upon locating a suitable victim, was observed to alight 

 upon the dorsum of the thorax and quickly deposit several living 

 maggots, which, encountering only the soft, tender membrane, speed- 

 ily made their way into the body 

 cavity of their host. The maggots 

 are capable, however, of entering a 

 host which is fully dried out and 

 hardened, the writer having noted 

 a female sarcophagid to larviposit 

 on a grasshopper nymph (fig. 2) 

 which had been stung by Priononyx 

 atrata and left upon the open prai- 

 rie beside the partially excavated 

 hole of the wasp : the maggots de- 

 posited soon entering the host and 

 the parasitic tiy Sarcophaga keiiyi the puparia later emerging, to give 



afterwards deposited a larva: About • . i u. _e a i n • 



one-third enlarged. (Original.) issuance to adults of S. kellljl. 



The number of living maggots 

 deposited by the female upon an individual host during one period 

 of larviposition would vary from 1 to 7 or more, although from 3 to 

 6 appeared to be the more general. The writer has reared individuals 

 from five puparia of S. Jcellyi taken from an adult of Dlssosteira 

 Carolina captured at Wellington, Kans., on the wing July 9, 1913, 

 the maggots emerging from the host July 10. As many as 16 mag- 

 gots have been found in the body cavity of a large nympth of Hip- 

 piscus sp. in New Mexico. 



The maggots of S. hellyi usually issue from their host just pos- 

 terior to the anterior coxa. A certain percentage, however, depart 

 from the host by boring through the abdomen at the segmental 

 sutures or by passing through the anal orifice. Upon leaving the 

 host the maggots may enter the soil directly beneath their victim, or 

 they may crawl several feet away before entering the ground. The 

 summer generations of S. kellyi pupate from one-half to 2 inches 



Fig. 2. — Long-winged grasshopper : 

 Nymph which had been stung by the 

 wasp Priononyx atrata and on which 



