80 Indian Economic Entomology. [ Vol, L 



were like those of the common blow-fly. The head was attenuated and retractile and 

 furnished with two minute curved hooks, and the last segment was squarely cnfc off, 

 slightly concave, and with the usual two spiracles or breathing holes which this class 



oflarvre have at their tails They went into the ground and remained in the larva 



state all the winter, contracted to pupre in the April following and the flies com- 

 menced to issue the last of May." 1 



II.— CHALCIS CRICUL.E, nov. sp„ KoU. 



[Plate V,fig.2.} 



Mas: nigra ala limpid a ; Femora postica rafo apice albido flava ; 

 caput et thorax subpunciata ; fades deplanata ; antenna crassiculee, apice 

 externo flavido ; scutellum convexum inerme. 



Comparing this species with the palsearctic Chalcis podagrica, Fabr. 

 The head,' which is black and slightly punctated, is similar except in 

 having a smooth clypeus. Flabellum of antenna is somewhat slighter, 

 the apex of the terminal joint being light yellow. The punctation on 

 the head and sternum is less marked. On the scutellum the punctation 

 is clearer and coarser than on the mesothorax, but on both it is so 

 scattered that it gives the whole thorax the appearance of being dis- 

 tinctly more glossy than in most species of the genus Chalcis. The 

 scutellum, which is not produced posteriorly, is unarmed and arched. 

 The legs are slighter than in podagrica and are in proportion to the 

 smaller size of the whole insect and its slighter antennae. The extre- 

 mities of the femora, tibia? and tarsi of the two. anterior pairs of legs are 

 yellowish white, tinged in places with dull yellow. In the posterior 

 pair of legs the femur is red with pale yellow extremity, and has from 

 twelve to fourteen spines, which are smaller and more evenly arranged 

 than in podagrica. The wings are vitreous. Length of the insect is 



1 Dr. Becher adds a note on the Uji Fly, whose life history he believed to be similar to 

 that of Trycolyga bombycis. Apparently, however, he had' only seen Sasaki's preliminary 

 notice of his investigations on the subject (Nature, XXX, p. 436), and the life history 

 as described by Sasaki was so anomalous that Dr. Becher rejected it as altogether im- 

 probable, adopting instead the older theory which, however, appears to have been based 

 en little more than supposition. Sasaki has since published (Journ. Coll. Sci. Tokyo, Japan, 

 Vol. I, 1886) an elaborate memoir on the subject, and seems fully to have established his 

 observations, which show that this interesting species has a life history very different from 

 that of Trycolyga bombycis. According to Sasaki the fly deposits its eggs, which are very 

 small, on the underside of mulberry leaves. The silk-worms, in eating these leaves, swallow 

 the eggs, without crushing them with their mandibles. The egg hatches in the digestive 

 canal of the silk-worm, the maggot thence forces its way through the wall of the digestive 

 canal into ooe of the nerve centres which lie below; here it remains, feeding upon the nerve 

 cells and growing, until the membrane of the ganglion ruptures and the maggot passes into 

 the body cavity. It then makes its way to the main trachea of one of the stigmata and 

 fixes itself, with its head in the body cavity and its posterior stigmata in connection with 

 one of the stigmata of its host. In this position it is enabled to respire and remains until 

 full grown. The affected stigma of the silk-worm is easily recognized by the brown patch 

 which surrounds it. When full fed the maggot cuts its way out of the body of its host 

 and betakes itself to earth, where it pupates, — E. C. C. 



