14 BULLETIN 1016, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 



A PARASITE OF THE ADULT. 



From time to time collections of adults and nymphs of the chinch 

 bug have been made in fields about Rock Hill, S. C, and brought 

 to the laboratory at Columbia, S. C, for breeding work. Xo special 

 attention was given to the possibility of rearing a parasite from the 

 adult. A large number of adults, however, comprising a portion of 

 the material mentioned, yielded a tachinid parasite which emerged 

 from a male individual. The host specimen was collected by Mr. 

 Samuel Blum on May 7. The puparium was formed on May 8 and 

 the adult fly issued on May 20. The puparium was at first a golden 

 color, later turning a dark red. This parasite has been determined by 

 Mr. W. R. Walton as Phorantha occidentis Walk., and the deter- 

 mination has been verified by Dr. J. M. Aldrich of the United States 

 National Museum. 



Very little is known concerning this parasite except that it has been 

 reared from two other hosts, both belonging to the order Hemiptera. 

 Mr. F. B. Milliken reared an adult of this species in 1913 from an 

 adult of the false chinch bug (Nysius angustatus Uhl.) and Mr. M. 

 D. Leonard reared it from the capsid bug Miris dolabratus L. As 

 far as the writer has been able to learn, this is the first record of 

 the rearing of a dipterous parasite from the chinch bug, although a 

 hymenopterous parasite (Eumicrosoma benefica Gahan) was reared 

 by Mr. J. W. McColloch of the Kansas Agricultural Experiment 

 Station several years ago from eggs of this species. 



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