Report of the State Entomologist 161 



victim to the entire group. Unfortunately, the importance of the 

 observation was not known to me at the time, and no further atten- 

 tion was given to it." * 



Its Oviposition and Larval Habits. 



Professor Riley, referring to my remarks as above published, kindly 

 gave me the following interesting statement of his observations upon 

 the habits of this species, which adds so much to our . previous 

 knowledge of the insect, that I take the liberty of inserting his note, 

 written under date of July 15, 1883 : 



"I have on several occasions had opportunity of closely studying 

 not only the mode of oviposition, but of larval growth of Bhyssa. 

 My sketches and notes are at home [written from Boscawen, N. H.], 

 but the salient facts bearing on your question I can give from 

 memory. In all instances, where I have found the female depositing, 

 it has been in trees infested with Tremex columha, and I have found 

 her most numerous on badly aflfected or injured trees, or even on 

 stumps or broken trunks already partly decayed. The instinct to 

 reach the egg or larva of Tremex, so dwelt upon in popular accounts, 

 is imaginary. She bores directly through the outer parts of the tree, 

 and doubtless probes for a burrow; but her egg is consigned any- 

 where in the burrow; the young larva seeks its prey, and lives and 

 develops without penetrating the body of its victim, but fastened to 

 the exterior. This habit among parasites is much more common than 

 is generally supposed. A great many Bhyssa larvse doubtless perish 

 without finding food, and a great many females die in probing for a 

 burrow, especially when they burrow through wood that is sound 

 and hard." 



Other Species of Thalessa. 



But three other Thalessas, beyond the two mentioned in the fore- 

 going, are recorded in our lists, viz.: T. Quebeoensis Prov., from 

 Canada; T. nitida Cresson, from Canada and Virginia; and T. Nortoni 

 Cresson, from Canada and Colorado. Of the last-named species, 

 described in Proceed. Entomolog. Soc. of Phila., iii, 1864, p. 317, and 

 characterized by its transparent, unspotted wings, the semicircu- 

 lar yellow dorsal spot on the first and second segments, and the 

 large, rounded, yellow spot on the sides of each of the third, 

 fourth and fifth segments — a single example (the only one 



*An ideutical operation of either this species or by the black long-sting, T. afrata — 

 judging from the careful description of the insect and its subsequent identification 

 of the form in my collection, has been observed and narrated to me by Mr. J. S. 

 Woodward, Secretary of the Now York State Agricultural Society. The ovipositor 

 was extended between the legs, reaching in front of the insect, and was being used 

 on a colony of caterpillars upon a limb, the species of which was not known to the 

 observer. 



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