98 
THE PERIODICAL CICADA. 
young and bear them off to their cells. In all our researches we found 
them in battalions systematically arrayed for wholesale plunder and 
devastation." Dr. Smith corroborates Professor Potter, stating that he 
has himself observed a small red ant, scarcely as large as its intended 
victim (a young Cicada larva), 
seize the latter, shoulder it, and 
start off at a great speed. 
The parasites of the eggs. — Sev- 
eral egg parasites were reared from 
the eggs of the Cicada, but with 
one exception were not abundant 
in the course of extensive breed- 
ings. Single individuals were se- 
cured of a Mymarid, a Trichogram- 
mid, and two Chalcidids. The 
excepted species, however, has 
been reported as occurring in enor- 
mous numbers, and warrants a 
more careful account. 
Attention seems to have been 
first called to this parasite by Mr. 
William T. Hartrnan in a letter dated October 5, 1868, to Dr. Walsh. 
In this Mr. Hartman states that in getting some twigs, from which 
he hoped to obtain the larvae of the Cicada, from an oak which had 
been very thickly oviposited in, he found, after leaving the tree, that 
his head and clothes were covered with what seemed to be small red 
flies. The branches secured were kept in his office for several days 
and the little red flies appeared again in countless numbers. The 
Fig. 43.— Female Megastizus carrying a Cicada to 
her burrow — natural size (after Eiley). 
Fig. 44. — Burrows of 2Icgastizus speciosus: e, e, e, main entrance; c, c, c, c, chambers for larva? and 
their food— greatly reduced (after Eiley). 
examination of these flies under a microscope showed that they were 
minute Hymenoptera instead of Diptera, as he first supposed. He 
obtained very few larvae of the Cicada from these shoots, and conse- 
quently inferred that practically all of the eggs had been parasitized by 
this insect. He states also that a neighbor of his trapped thousands of 
them in the soft paint which had been newly applied to his window 
shutters, and that by the middle of August this minute parasite was 
"everywhere in force." 
