14 BULLETIN 1016, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
A PARASITE OF THE ADULT. 
From time to time collections of adults and nymphs of the chinch 
bug have been made in fields about Rock Hill, S. C, and brought 
to the laboratory at Columbia, S. C, for breeding work. No special 
attention was given to the possibility of rearing a parasite from the 
adult. A large number of adults, however, comprising a portion of 
the material mentioned, yielded a tachinid parasite which emerged 
from a male individual. The host specimen was collected by Mr. 
Samuel Blum on May 7. The puparium was formed on May 8 and 
the adult fly issued on May 20. The puparium was at first a golden 
color, later turning a dark red. This parasite has been determined by 
Mr. W. R. Walton as Phorantha occidentis' Walk., and the deter- 
mination has been verified by Dr. J. M. Aldrich of the United States 
National Museum. 
Very little is known concerning this parasite except that it has been 
reared from two other hosts, both belonging to the order Hemiptera. 
Mr. F. B. Milliken reared an adult of this species in 1913 from an 
adult of the false chinch bug {Nysius angustatus Uhl.) and Mr. M. 
D. Leonard reared it from the capsid bug Miris dolabratus L. As 
far as the writer has been able to learn, this is the first record of 
the rearing of a dipterous parasite from the chinch bug, although a 
hymenopterous parasite {Eurmcrosoma benefice Gahan) was reared 
by Mr. J. W. McColloch of the Kansas Agricultural Experiment 
Station several years ago from eggs of this species. 
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