1 882.] Entomology. 61 



Schwarz in the January, 1881, number of the Naturalist, as to 

 need no extended description. The flat, empty skin of the host 

 is united to the leaf by a mesh of coarse silk, in which are placed 

 transversely the seven parasitic pupae, each separated from the 

 others by a silken partition, and protected as by a roof by the 

 skin of the Phoxopteris. Other lepidopterous larvae will un- 

 doubtedly be found to be infested by parasites of this interesting 

 genus, and the only wonder is that no observations should have 

 been recorded since the days of Fonscolombe. 



In early July, while examining the mines of Lithocolletis hama- 

 dryad* lla, on the white oak at Washington, several mines were 

 found, each of which presented a discolored portion, regularly 

 elliptical in form, 3.5 mm long by 2 ,nm wide, the edge of which was 

 marked by a series of small, regularly placed black dots. Upon 

 removing carefully the separated epidermis of the leaf, the center 

 of the discolored portion was seen to be occupied by a naked 

 Chalcid pupa, not fastened to the leaf in any way, but held in 

 place and protected by a series of minute cylindrical pillars, from 

 twelve to fifteen in number, applied by flattened extremities to the 

 upper and lower surfaces of the mine, and forming a regular 

 ellipse around the pupa. The distances between the pillars were 

 uniform, and the pillars themselves were very constant in size. 

 Their length was about 0.3 5 mm . The excrement of Chalcid 

 larvae, as is vvell-kn >\x\\, is only voided at the change to pupae, 

 and is usually to be found in a few irregular pellets at the anal 

 end of the body of the pupa. These pillars, however, seem to be 

 clearly excrementitious, and yet must have been formed by the 

 Chalcid larva prior to pupation ; but, as the anal end of the ali- 

 mentary canal is only open during the transition to pupa, the 

 material composing the pillars must have been expelled from 

 the mouth of the larva, and shaped while yet moist. The most 

 natural thought which suggests itself as to the object of this pe- 

 culiar disposition of the excrement, is that the pillars by separa- 

 ting the floor and the roof of the mine save the pupa from the 

 pressure of the latter, as the mine of L. hamadryadeUa is flat and 

 not tentiform. If this be so, and no other reasonable explanation 

 offers itself, it is certainly a most interesting and unlooked-for 

 provision. The adult proved to belong to a brilliant little species 

 of Chrysocharis F6rst, which I have called in MS. C. singulars. 



While engaged one day in October in an oak wood, gathering 

 galls with a view of breeding parasites, I found upon the under 

 side of a leaf a curious assemblage of small black bodies, resem- 

 bling, as much as anything I could think of, the excrement of 

 some caterpillar. They were shapeless little objects, each mounted 

 on end, and at the extremity of each, next the leaf, was a small 

 racemose cluster of minute li-dit "rav globule*. Without giving 

 them a careful examinati- n I "ett ed it n n v mind that the glob- 

 ules were the sporidia of some fungus which had settled upon 



