TACHINID PARASITES OF THE GIPSY MOTH. 213 
forward in the case of Theronia fulvescens Cress. It is therefore con- 
sidered as a secondary just as much and as habitually as it is a primary 
and the question as to whether it is of enough more importance in 
one role than it is in the other to render it more than neutral remains 
to be decided. Apparently its value as a primary is sufficient to 
render void its noxiousness as a secondary, and to leave a consider- 
able margin to its good, but this margin does not seem quite as wide 
now as it did a year ago, and it will require a eee or two more to 
determine the t:ue status of the parasite. 
MISCELLANEOUS PARASITES. 
There are quite a number of small chalcidids, the most of them 
being Dibrachys boucheanus Ratz, which are occasionally received 
withshipments of tachinids 
from abroad. None of 
them is of any importance 
whatever in this connec- 
tion, from the point of 
view gained through the 
study of the material col- 
lected and sent under the 
conditions which have pre- 
vailed in the past. Some- 
times when lots of loose 
puparia have been shipped 
as such, loosely packed, 
two or three among them 
have produced a colony of 
Dibrachys or some other 
parasite of similar size and 
habits, and these individ- 
uals have immediately set Fie. 35.—Blepharipa scutellata: Adult female. Enlarged. 
about the propagation of nee 
their species with such good effect as to bring about the destruction 
of the larger part of the remaining puparia. 
No serious effort has as yet been made to sort the Chalcididx thus 
reared to species, much less to determine their specific identity. 
BLEPHARIPA SCUTELLATA DESV. 
Among the tachinid parasites of the gipsy moth caterpillars or the 
brown-tail moth caterpillars, Blepharipa scutellata (fig. 35) is the 
most conspicuous representative of the group characterized by the 
habit of depositing eggs (figs. 836 and 37) upon the foliage of trees or 
other plants frequented by its host with the deliberate intention that 
they shall be devoured. It is also an exceedingly close ally to the 
