116 REPORT 



4, UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



Pig. 44. — Hexaplasta zigzag .- female from side. 

 (After Eiley). 



that this parasite does not belong to Aletia, but that it in reality attacks 

 Phora aletice Comstock — the next insect which we discuss — and that Pro- 

 fessor Oomstock was misled by appearances in considering it a true 

 parasite of Aletia. The Hexaplasta 

 is certainly a parasite of Phora, as 

 the following extracts from Mr. Hub- 

 bard's notes plainly show : 



" Centerville, August 21.— In 

 one of my tin boxes, in which I keep 

 a supply of Phora larvae feeding upon 

 moldy leaves, dead caterpillars, &c., 

 I to-day observed a minute chalcid (?) 

 fly [H. zigzag] puncturing one after 

 another the bodies of a cluster of 

 newly-hatched Phoras. I separated 

 these maggots and the parasite. The parasite, watched under a lens, 

 was seen to insert her ovipositor with a strong, steady motion once into 

 the body of each larva and immediately w ithdraw it. The Phora larvae 

 were confined in a small vial with crushed Aletia pupse for food. Ex- 

 amined October 13. Six parasites are seen walking about tbe vial. 

 They disclosed from six Phora pupae." 



This fully confirms our own experience, and leaves no doubt that 

 Hexaplasta is actually parasitic upon Phora, and this fact being proven 

 it is altogether unlikely that it is also a parasite upon Aletia, althougli 

 we have no absolute proof to the contrary. _We introduce the account of 

 this insect in this place, as it was considered, ui)on Professor Comstock's 

 authority, under the head of the true parasites in the first edition. 



Phora ALEXIA Comstock (Fig. 45). — Under the head of true parasites 

 of Aletia, Professor 

 Oomstock has given 

 detailed descriptions of 

 a species of Phora com- 

 mon throughout the 

 South, as Phora aletice, 

 with, as it seems to us, 

 very insufficient reasons 

 in support of his view 

 that it is a true parasite. 

 These reasons were, 

 firstly, that it had been 

 reared in great numbers 

 from chrysalides collect- 

 ed by Mr. Trelease in the 

 field, which appeared 

 either sound or parasited; and, secondly, that the Ph. incrassata of 

 Europe is, according to Packard (American Naturalist, 1868), a true par- 

 asite of the hive bee, 



Pig. 45. — Phora aletice, larva, pupa, female, and male abdomen, 

 highly enlarged. (Pergande del.) 



