HABITS OF PHORA ALETLfi. 
117 
To answer tho Last argument it may be stated that Ph. incra&sata lias 
never been satisfactorily proven to be a hw parasite, in spite of Dr. 
Packard's statement to the contrary. 
• In regard to the first argument, our experience with this particular 
Phora has been quite extensive, and lias proven that the eggs are laid 
in masses, not necessarily upon the insect, and never upon living or 
healthy insects. The larvre very soon attack any decaying animal or 
vegetable substance; but while they may be thickly crawling about and 
over living larvae, they do not penetrate tin? same. After the insect 
was considered a parasite of Aletia we took pains to have the actual 
facts ascertained and verified, and the observations of Messrs. Hubbard 
and Schwarz are conclusive. A note in the American Entomologist, III, 
228, by Mr. Hubbard 43 to the effect that, from his observations, the 
flies gathered about moldy food and the excrement of larva 1 , but never 
deposited eggs unless they found dead moths, larva) or pup®, and 
moisture, was the occasion for the following interesting letter from Baron 
Osten Sacken on the habits of the genus, which was published in the 
November (1880) number of the American Entomologist: 
The opinion expressed by Mr. Hubbard in your Septe mber number (p. "i'JS) about 
Phora not being a true parasite holds good, no doubt, in t he majority of eases. Anion*; 
the literature which I have collected on the habits of Thora, I lind only one direct 
statement about larva- of this lly having developed in a living insect. Mr. Brisehke 
(Kleinere lieobacht ungen iiber Inseeten) received from a coleopterist some pupa- ami 
imagos of Phora, with the remark that the pupa? had come out of the anus of a living 
Osmoderma. The friend very probably meant to say that hirvcv had come out and had 
immediately transformed into pup;e. The statements of Bouehc" (Naturg. d. Ins. , p. 
101) are less direct. He obtained larva} of Phora from several specimens of Sphinx con- 
rolvnli in captivity, and from caterpillars of a Tinea. Although he does not say that 
the Sphinxes and caterpillars were alive when the larva- emerged from them, we are 
justified to assume from his wording that the larv;o of Thorn had lived in their host, 
while he was alive, although they may have escaped after death. Brisehke (I. c.) also 
takes it that way. 
Perrii, in hie Iu $e ot t§ du pin maritime, had expressed tho same opinion as Mr. Hub- 
bard, that the larva' of Phora are scavengers, not parasites; but later (PesuKain de 
qnehpies promenade* enUmolOfiqutt, in Ann. Soe. Ent. Ft. , 1873, p. 74) ho confesses his 
doubts about the matter, lb- had obtained a Phora from the nvmplue of L'oecinella 
7-pnnctata, these nymplne not showing any signs of decay. Curtis (Brit. Ent., 4:57) 
and Rondani (Atti, «fce., Milano, 1860) relate similar observations. In such cases the 
larvie of Phora may have been carnirorons without being parasites; they may have 
killed the nymplne and eaten their contents. Zetterstedt's statement, il larva (Phora;) 
in Geotrnpe nasicomi inrenta, teste Marklin," may or may not refer to a case parallel to 
that of Osmoderma. Tho case related by Gourcau (Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr., 1855, p. 21 ) of 
papa of Phora, found in a box, in which, for about a month, ho had kept a pinned 
Psitln/rns, is likewise not conclusive, because the Phora? may have slipped in the box 
and laid eggs on tho putrescent specimen. Still, there is enough to show, in what pre- 
cedes, that there is something to be learned yet about the habits of Phora. — [C. R. 
Osten Sacken, Heidelberg, Ocrmany, October, 1880. 
Mr. Schwarz's observations on Phora aletice give, in good form, the 
habits of the species, and are herewith given in full : 
"My acquaintance with this particular species of Phora dates back 
so far as the spring and early summer of 1875. In that year, while in 
