A STUDY IN HYPERPARASITISM 13 
ited at all, and very frequently so much of the fluid content of the 
Apanteles is appropriated by the adult Hemiteles that only a shriv- 
eled mass remains, which is entirely inadequate for the nourishment 
of a Hemiteles larva. On one occasion a single female of this 
species made 47 punctures in one cocoon, but deposited only one 
egg. Often, however, several eggs are placed in a single cocoon 
during the course of repeated insertions of the ovipositor, even when 
other cocoons are available; but never does more than one larva 
mature in such cases. Because of their large size only a few fully 
developed eges are present in the uterus at one time, and evidently 
more than six to eight eggs are rarely deposited within a 24-hour 
period. In the laboratory the largest number of eggs obtained 
from one female on one day was 10, and this only on a single occasion, 
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5 
Fic. 1.—Hemiteles tenellus, female 
following the failure of this parasite to deposit any eggs during the 
two days immediately preceding. Usually only from one to three eggs 
per day were obtained, and in the case of all the Hemiteles observed 
there were many days interspersed upon which no eggs were deposited. 
The largest total number of eggs laid by one female in the laboratory 
was 76, and this over a period extending from May 11 to July 1. 
The egg hatches after about 48 hours and the larva feeds externally 
upon the Apanteles within the cocoon. There are five larval stages. 
This was determined by carrying through individual hyperparasites, 
from eggs to adults, in cells on depressed slides. According to these 
observations, the first stage required two days, the next three stages 
about one day each, and the fifth stage an average of seven days, 
although feeding in this stage ceased at the end of a day and a half. 
Thus Hemiteles became full grown after about six or seven days 
