PAKASITES OF GIPSY-MOTH CATERPILLARS. 



193 



APANTELES FULVIPES HAL. 



The one among the hymenopterous parasites attacking the cater- 

 pillars of the gipsy moth which has ever been received under circum- 

 stances indicative of its unquestioned importance as an enemy of 

 that host is at present known as Apanteles fulvipes (fig. 31). The 

 name Glypt apanteles, as generically applied to it, has been regret- 

 fully dropped, the more so since this name has already become familiar 

 to many whose interest in parasites begins and ends with those which 

 are included among the enemies of the gipsy and brown-tail moths. 

 It was accepted, in the first place, on account of the immediate dis- 

 tinction which it offered to Apanteles, as applied to A. solitarius and 

 A. lacteicolor Vier., 

 and because it 

 seemed preferable to 

 make the technical 

 name the common 

 name as well. Now, 

 with an enforced 

 change in the spe- 

 cific name vaguely 

 in prospect, it would 

 seem advisable to 

 adopt an arbitrary 

 c ommon name 

 rather than to at- 

 tempt to popularize 

 the technical name, 

 and should it again 

 become desirable to 

 write of it in a pop- 

 ular way, this will 

 probably be done. 



That a change in its specific designation will become necessary when 

 it shall have been thoroughly well studied abroad seems probable, 

 although there is no basis upon which to make such a change at the 

 present time. If, as European taxonomists have agreed, it is synony- 

 mous with A. nemorum, described by Ratzeburg as a parasite of 

 Lasiocampa pini L. and is at the same time specifically identical with 

 the form so determined by Marshall as a common species in England, 

 there seems to be no reason why it should not be introduced success- 

 fully into Massachusetts. A parasite with anything like the wide 

 range of hosts accredited to this species abroad should find no diffi- 

 culty in existing in America, and if the species which attacks the 

 62188°— Bull. 91—12 13 



Fig. 31. — Apanteles fulvipes: Adult. Greatly enlarged. (From Howard. 



