18 
spent in gathering Icerya and its enemies. Many of the secondary par- 
asites were again noticed, yet not a single Lestophonus. I gathered 
during this time probably six thousand scales, and hardly a specimen 
was noticed among them that was not parasitized by the Lestophonus. 
All of them contained either puparia of the fly or empty holes where the 
flies had issued. Knowing that if we should introduce the secondary 
parasite the good work of Lestophonus on Icerya would be greatly re- 
stricted, I sent the following notice to Mr. Coquillett, and also to your 
office. 
On account of a parasite of Lestophonus iceryce, remove the infested scales that I 
send from the tree they were placed on, after six weeks, and transfer into large glass, 
jars; examine daily by stupefying the insects that have issued, with chloroform or 
ether, empty contents on table, pick out the flies and destroy their parasites. Form 
a new colony with every consignment you receive. 
In your letter of January 3 in regard to this secondary parasite you 
wrote: 
The parasite bred from Kermes and the one from confined Icerya and which you 
think to be parasitic upon Lestophonus are different species of the same genus. The 
genus is an entirely new one belonging to the Chalcid subfamily Elasminw. This sub- 
family is an extremely interesting one, and up to the present time has contained only 
the typical genus Elasmus, so that this finding of a new genus is important. Elasmus 
contains both secondary and primary parasites, so that it will be necessary to secure 
pretty good evidence regarding this new form before we can accept it as either one 
or the other. 
From seventy-five specimens of Kermes no Lestophonus was bred. On 
the 26th I left Adelaide on my way to Sydney, with what I considered 
even a better shipment than the first. Unfortunately this lot arrived 
in a bad condition at San Francisco, owing to a gale on the route when 
the parcels fell off the shelving in the ice-house, in which they had 
been placed, and most of them were crushed by cakes of ice falling on 
them. In my opinion, eveu such severe treatment as this would not 
destroy so very many of the pupse of Lestophonus, which are not soft, 
and if crushed out of the scale will produce flies if properly taken 
care of later, as I had ample opportunity to observe while in Australia, 
Among this lot of things were also about fifteen hundred eggs of the 
Chrysopa which were collected on Kangaroo Acacia (A. armata) infested 
by a Dactylopius, which is often taken to be Icerya. The scale is some- 
times so abundant that the plants are entirely covered with it. This 
was the case during my visit, and, as Mr. Crawford informed me, also in 
1882. Mr. Maskell, to whom specimens were forwarded by Mr. Craw- 
ford, said that the insect belongs to the Dactylopince. The eggs of the 
Chrysopa were so abundant that often from twenty to thirty could be 
counted on a single small outer branch of a few inches in lengtb, yet 
many of these had already hatched. The number of Lady-birds in all 
stages sent with this lot amounted to several hundred. The weather 
was unusually hot during two days of collecting, the thermometer regis- 
tered 108° Fah. in the shade, and from one small box left in room 
over night, where the temperature had not been below 90° Fah., about 
