General Notes. [January, 



ental pellets as a matrix. With this view I stowed the 

 leaf away in a pill-box, purposing to carry it to a mycological 

 friend next day. On the following morning, however, I was greatly 

 surprised to find that from several of my supposed excremental 

 pellets had issued active little Chalcid flies. This of course led to 

 a closer examination, and to the discovery that the supposed pel- 

 lets were the bunchiest, most shapeless, most coarctate Chalcid 

 pupae I had ever seen. There were twenty-two of them in all, 



of which had evidently, from the scattered hairs, once been occu- 

 pied by the caterpillar upon which they had fed. Each pupa was 

 fastened by its anal end to the leaf, and the clusters of light gray 

 globules at the end of each, which I had taken for sporidia were 

 nothing more than the contents of the alimentary canal, ejected 

 before pupation. The surface of the leaf in the center of the oval 

 space, round which the pupae were clustered, was covered with a 

 thin web of silk, which rendered the attachment of the pupae to 

 the leaf easier and firmer. 



From these strange objects the adult Chalcids emerge by burst- 

 ing off the upper portion of the pi the separated 

 part attached only by the sheaths of the posterior legs. The line 

 of fracture extends behind the head and down caudo-ventrally, 

 including the wing and leg sheaths in the separated portion. It 

 has been suggested to me that the apparent want of form which 

 these pupae show — their extreme coarctation — could be explained 

 on the supposition that the very delicate larval skin was not shed 

 at all, but simply contracted closely around the pupa and its mem- 

 bers as it formed. After softening the pupa, however, in various 

 menstrua, the most careful examination showed no trace of such 

 a skin. The strange form must rather be laid to some peculiarity 

 in the secretion of the chitine. 



Since this first experience I have several times found these in- 

 teresting and sociable-looking little groups of pupae upon oak 

 leaves. The little mass of excremental globules at the end of 

 each, by its decided contrast of color, adds much to the strange- 

 ness of the appearance. I have never found other trace of the 

 host than the scattered hairs, which show it to be a bombycid 

 larva. The Chalcid issuing normally from these pupae is a species 

 of the true genus Eulophus ; but one is apt to be misled by the 

 frequent presence of a secondary parasite— an Astichus. The lat- 

 ter, however, instead of issuing in the manner indicated above, 

 makes its exit through a circular hole, cut usually in the thorax 

 of the pupa. It is, moreover, a much smaller insect than the 

 Eulophus. — '/'<> dc continued.) — L. O. Hoivard. 



On the Ovjposition of Prodoxus decipiens. 1 — In his paper 

 treating of this insect, read at the Boston meeting, the author 



1 Abstract of a paper read by C. V. Riley at the Cincinnati meeting of the 



