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JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 



r\^oi. 8 



gers in relation to lepidopterous larvae and pupae is discussed by How- 

 ard and Fiske, Bull. 91, Bur. Ent., 1911, p. 250, where it is stated that 

 in imported gypsy moth material there have often been more Sarco- * 

 phagid than tachinid puparia; notwithstanding this fact, absolute proof 

 that the Sarcophagid larvae invade living caterpillars is said to be lack- 

 ing. The same conclusion was reached hy Patterson (in Bull. 19. 

 Tech. ser., Bur. Ent., part 3, 1911) as far as the Gipsy Moth is con- 

 cerned; but he did not distinguish species at all in his experiments, 

 hence may have been using the common excrement-feeding Ravinia 

 communis when he attempted without success to induce the flies to 

 larviposit on living caterpillars. I can supply the missing proof in 

 one instance: — 'living larvae of the Army Worm moth were brought 

 into the Bureau insectary at Lafayette last summer by Mr. J. J. Davis 

 and assistants, confined in breeding cages, and yielded 30 or more 

 adults of Sarcophaga helicis — more of these than of any Tachinid 

 parasites. Since the Sarcophagids have been seen to larviposit on 

 living grasshoppers, and as I shall show farther on, also upon living 

 beetles, it becomes easier to admit that they parasitize caterpillars. 

 The records include undetermined Sarcophagas attacking Alabama 

 argillacea, Acronycta ovata, and Phakellura hyalinitalis; S. helicis on 

 Loxostege sticticalis, Pieris and the Army Worm; hunteri on Army 

 worm, and even the Codling Moth; and amhly coryphee on Amhlycory- 

 pha ohlongifolia. 



The only record relating to Hymenoptera that I have found is that 

 of Sarcophaga (Boettcheria) cimbicis Townsend, of which the types 

 were bred from larvae of Cimhex americana. Other published records 

 for cimbicis are all due to misidentification, as I lately learned from 

 an examination of the types ; the species has been bred only once. 



Sarcophagas have been bred several times from beetles, usually 

 from the adults. 



On May 13, 1893, 34 adults of Lachnosterna arcuata were collected 

 in Washington and placed in a breeding cage. From these there 

 emerged several specimens of S. helicis, which matured in July. 



On March 4, there were received in the Bureau living larvae of the 

 beetle, Dinapate wrightii, in a piece of palm trunk from Southern Cali- 

 fornia, sent in by H. G. Hubbard. Two adult beetles emerged in 

 July and August, and on September 2 there came out of one of these 

 adults several dipterous larvae, w^hich gave S. helicis on September 

 11. 



On September 13, 1894, two specimens of the same fly issued in a 

 jar which had contained larvae of Calosoma sp. 



In the summer of 1914, Mr. D. E. Fink, of the Bureau of Ento- 

 mology, bred S. sarracenioe, helicis, and a new species, from Allorhina 



