11 
Hymenopteba. 
Host. A leaf-cutting bee. 
Monodontomerm trichioptJialmus. 
Biology. 
No special study has been made of tbe biology and economic import- 
ance of the parasites, and, as the following notes indicate, it is probable 
that they play a minor role in controlling the incidence of their hosts. 
Hypsipyla eobusta. 
The seasonal history of the fruit and shoot borer of Cedrela Toona 
has been worked out in the Dehra Dim district, where it exhibits a suc- 
cession of five generations in the year.* In the first two broods (the 
flower and fruit generations) the larva is exposed to parasitism, but in 
the succeeding three broods it is more or less protected in a burrow in 
the woody shoot. The incidence of parasitism is, however, very low 
throughout the season. 
The caterpillars of the first two generations are attacked by a small 
braconid, of which 12-17 individuals develop in one robusta caterpillar. 
In 1916 when several thousands of robusta were reared, the parasitism 
by the braconid scarcely exceeded 1 per 1000 ; and in 1920 and 1921 it 
was not obtained in the breeding-cages. The jDupse of the first two 
broods serve as hosts for Chalcis hearseyi xanthoterus, C. tachardicB and 
an undetermined species of Chalcis, one individual developing in each 
pupa with a life cycle of 2-3 weeks. All these species have alternate 
hosts locally, and from the low degree of their occiurence in robusta, 
it appears that the latter is not the preferred host. Antrocephalus 
destructor and Antrocephalus renalis are pupal parasites of these broods, 
renalis occurring the more numerously. A few individuals of Compsiliira 
concinnata, Zygobothria gilva and Sturmia near biseriata, (Tachinidse) 
have been bred from these broods. 
In the shoot generations occurring during the rains and cold weather 
parasitism is due to the above mentioned species of Chalcis, to Tetrasli- 
chus spirabilis, Rhyssa sp. near persuasoria and to other unidentified 
Ichneumonids. 
The chain of parasitism of the toon borer (in the Dehra Dun district) 
is thus very weak, and exerts but a feeble check on its seasonal abundance. 
In 1921, when a special attempt was made to determine the abundance 
* Vide Beeson, C. F. C., Indian Forest Records, vii, 7, 1919. The Life History of the 
Toon Shoot and Fruit Borer, Hypsipyla robusta Moore. 
