white, cylindrical, and about 12 mm. long. The thoracic legs are 
indistinctly jointed and fleshy. There is a single pair of small 
prolegs on the last abdominal segment and a short, tubular prong 
on the tip of the abdomen. Adults appear in late May and 
June and the females deposit their eggs in punctures in the shoots 
of their hosts. Sometimes they girdle and weaken the shoots above 
the oviposition site. The larvae feed by boring down through the 
pith which kills the shoot for varying distances. Winter is spent 
within the shoot in cocoon-like structures. 
The genus Periclista Konow is represented in eastern forests 
by eight species which feed as larvae on the leaves of oaks and 
hickory. The larvae are usually light green or have the dorsum 
grayish, and are armed with rows of small, single, two-pointed 
spines. 
Suborder APOCRITA (—CLISTOGASTRA) 
Members of the suborder Apocrita have the base of the abdo- 
men constricted into a slender petiole or ‘‘waist.’’ The constricted 
portion is comprised of the first abdominal segment which is fused 
to the thorax. Thus, what appears to be the first segment of the 
abdomen is actually the second. The adult female is equipped with 
a piercing ovipositor. In some species it is used as a tool for 
boring deep holes into the wood in which eggs are deposited; 
others use it for thrusting eggs into the bodies of other insects; 
in still others it is connected to poison glands and is used as a 
sting. The larvae are usually grublike or maggotlike. Some feed as 
parasites or predators on other insects and some feed on plants. 
Adults feed chiefly on flowers, sap, or other plant materials; some 
parasitic species feed occasionally on body fluids of the host. 
Considered as a whole, members of this suborder are far more 
beneficial than harmful. Only a few species are harmful to trees 
or wood products. A number are injurious to tree seed and cone 
crops. Some species of ants are destructive of young trees in nur- 
series, plantations, and natural regeneration areas, while others 
are destructive of finished wood products. 
SUPERFAMILY ICHNEUMONOIDEA 
This superfamily constitutes one of the largest groups of para- 
sitic insects and from the point of view of effectiveness in holding 
in check the numerous pests that infest plants, it probably takes 
first rank (144). It is comprised of three families (Stephanidae, 
Braconidae, and Icheneumonidae), and these have been broken 
down into more than 30 subfamilies, hundreds of genera, and 
thousands of species. Only a small portion of the important species 
parasitic on forest insects are mentioned. A complete listing of 
the species known to occur in the United States and Canada has 
been published by Meusebeck, et al. (550) and Krombein (442). 
FAMILY STEPHANIDAE 
This very small family of rather rare insects is represented in 
eastern forests by only one genus and three species. They are 
usually collected on dead trees and all are presumed to be para- 
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