INSECT NOTKS FOR I912. 457 



tion of the nests. As heretofore the nest should be removed 

 from the orchard or shade trees during the winter but they 

 should be held and kept under normal outdoor conditions until 

 the first warm days of spring when both parasites and cater- 

 pillars become active. As the parasite is the first to emerge 

 from the nest, the nest could be destroyed as soon as the cater- 

 pillars are seen to' be actively congregating on the outside. The 

 nests as soon as cut from the tree may be placed in a barrel or 

 other receptacle, the outside of which, at some distance from 

 the top edge, should be smeared with a band of tree tangle foot 

 or some similar preparation so that if the caterpillars start to 

 creep down the side they will be checked by the sticky sub- 

 stance. The parasite, a small shiny black 4- winged fly, about 

 3-16 of an inch in length, would fly ofif imharmed if the tangle 

 foot is not placed too near the upper edge. It is suggested that 

 these barrels be placed in the vicinity of wood lots in which 

 browntail nests are still known to exist. The parasites would 

 thus aid in reducing the infestation in the wood lands as well as 

 being enabled to breed and spread. 



Pteronialus egregius. (Chalcidae) 

 Forster, Beitr. Monogr. Pteromal. p. 22, 1841. 



T. O. Howard and W. F. Fiske. Bui. 91 Bur. Ent. U. S. Dept 



Agr. 191 1. 

 "Female. Dark green, scape at the base and the legs reddish yellow, 

 femur dark green with yellow apex, the posterior tibiae brown in the 

 middle. Propodeum shining, at the base coarsely punctate, on each side 

 with an elongate furrow; the middle transversely depressed, and with 

 a row of deep furrows, the apex smooth, transversely aciculate. Abdo- 

 men green, with violet fascije. Length 1-8 inch." (Forster). 



This little parasite of the browntail moth, also imported from 

 Europe by the Entomologists of the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture 

 about 6 years ago has been gradually spreading northward. In 

 191 1 it was recorded by the government entomologists from 

 Cumberland County, Maine. In Alarch 1912, a number of 

 specimens were obtained from winter nests which had been col- 

 lected in an orchard at C)rono, Maine. Fig. 4S4. 



The females of this species also enter the web nests of the 

 browntail moth caterpillars, but unlike the Monodonotomerus 

 they oviposit upon the caterpillars after these have become 



