116 



usually attack dipterous larva? in galls, and a number of specimens 

 of a species of Ooeneyrtas may have been parasitic upon the eggs of 

 some lepidopteron or heniipteron, but certainly could not hare reached 

 the eggs of the weevil. 



It is very noticeable that the dried squares which were picked from 

 the plants produced by far the largest part of all the parasites obtained, 

 312 squares giving 50 parasites. In this lot, therefore, II per cent of 

 the total number contained parasites of some kind and 13 per cent 

 were undoubtedly developed from the weevil larva?. Taking all other 

 squares together, 5,286 yielded onl} T 18 primary parasites, or only 0.3 

 per cent. 



Previous efforts to breed parasites of the weevil jielded as meager 

 results as those which have just been recorded, though they add to the 

 number of species. In 1891 Prof. C. H. T. Townsend bred, at Corpus 

 Christi, Tex., a single specimen of Urosigalplius robastus Ashm., which 

 was in all probability a primary parasite, as was also Braccm dorsata 

 Say, of which Mr. Schwarz obtained two specimens at Goliad, Tex. , 

 in the fall of 1895. A specimen of Euryioma tylodermatis Ashm. , also 

 reared by Mr. Townsend, may possibly have had some other host. 



Prof. A. L. Herrera has bred from weevils in the State of 

 Coahuila, Mexico, a new species of Darasite, described by Dr. W. H. 



Ashmead as BriicJioj>Jiagus 

 herreme. 



Pedicidoides ven tricos us 

 Newp. — This small mite has 

 been thought by some scien- 

 tists to be the most promising 

 parasite yet found attacking 

 the weevil. It has been ex- 

 perimented with quite exten- 

 sively by Prof. A. L. Herrera 

 and his assistants of the Mexi- 

 can Commission of Parasitol- 

 ogy. The mites breed with 

 extreme rapidity, the larvae 

 of wasps being their usual 

 hosts (PI. XX, fig. 85). Both 

 sexes attain full physical and 

 sexual maturity while yet 

 within the body of the moth- 

 er. The males are exceed- 

 ingly tiny, as are also the females, when they first leave the mother 

 mite. As the females become gravid, however, their abdomens swell 

 to an astonishing size as compared with the rest of the bod} 7 , being 

 distended by the rapid growth of the young mites (fig. 7). V\ T hen 



h 



W 



Fig. 7.— Enemy of cotton boll weevil, Pedicidoides ven- 

 tricosus— nrach enlarged (adapted from Brucker). 



