1932 ] Notes on the Prey of Podalonia 153 
found issuing from one. We will trace the subsequent his- 
tory of each prey separately. 
The small larvae were coming to the outside of the cut- 
worm through holes made in its body wall. These punc- 
tures were formed rather generally over the body surface 
and consisted of seventeen in all. Fortunately, they were 
all some distance from the point where the wasp’s egg had 
been attached. The larvae soon began spinning cocoons in 
the fine cotton on which the cutworm was resting. Two 
days later the last of these cocoons had been finished. 
These remained until May 11th when the adults began 
emerging. The insects were small ichneumonids, Meteorus 
vulgaris Cress. 1 which cut circular caps off the anterior ends 
ends of the cocoons in order to get out. The cocoons empty, 
their size and structure could more readily be noted. They 
were somewhat oblong in form, measured about 4.5 mm. in 
length and 2 mm. in width, through the center, and were 
light in color. Coarser strands of silk held the cocoon proper 
attached to the cotton threads. The anterior end possessed 
a distinct broad, blunt and thicker cap; the posterior end 
somewhat larger and more pointed, contained within the 
meconium or splotch of excrement, expelled from the larva 
after the cocoon had been formed. 
The egg of the wasp, attached to the cutworm from 
which the larval ichneumonids emerged, hatched in due sea- 
son, the larva began feeding and continued to eat the prey 
so long as any remained. The food exhausted, it soon spun 
a cocoon in which to pupate. On May 25th, an active female, 
P. luctuosa , cut away the end of the cocoon and crawled 
out. She was apparently normal in every respect, with the 
exception that she was smaller than the average. Thus the 
cutworm from the first nest had provided food for seven- 
teen internal parasites and later furnished enough for the 
growth and development of the wasp in addition. 
The cutworm from the second nest met a somewhat 
similar fate. Three days after capture by the wasp, eight 
fly magots squeezed their fat bodies through small holes in 
the cutworm’s body. The wasp larva (the egg of which had 
1 Kindly determined by Mr. A. B. Gahan. 
