STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
495 
PUNCTULATED FLEA-BEETLE. BOO PARASITES. THEIR CURIOUS HABITS. 
pies, has its leaves attacked by several insects, this flea-beetle being 
the most common one, at least in the forepart of the season. Both 
on the upper and under surface of the leaf it gnaws through the 
skin and eats the pulp, leaving the skin on the opposite side of 
the leaf entire, which becomes discolored, forming yellowish brown 
freckles, and as the leaf grows and expands, the skin at these points 
becomes torn and perishes, whereby holes through the leaf are 
formed. In this manner the older leaves often become riddled 
with holes of different sizes, the largest being about one-tenth of 
an inch in diameter. A few of the Hairy flea-beetles are com¬ 
monly found associated with these upon the leaves of the pie 
plant, being readily distinguished by being usually of a smaller 
size and not at all glossy and shining. 
These flea-beetles are frequently seen paired. The following 
incident is so remarkable and curious that it well merits to be 
here related. On the 4th of June, 1863, I noticed two of these 
flea-beetles paired, upon a leaf of the pie plant, when a minute 
Chaleidian parasite alighted upon the leaf quite near them. The 
male, hereupon, immediately descended, and went directly towards 
this parasite, as if he intended to walk over it; but it receded 
from him, stepping aside to avoid him, two or three times, till the 
male walked away. The Chaleidian then darted upon the back 
of the female, and appeared to be inserting its sting in the tip of 
the body of the female, when she gave a leap, and both disap¬ 
peared among the foliage. I conjecture this Chaleidian to have 
been an egg-parasite of the flea-beetle; and that the eggs of the 
flea-beetle are so minute that the young parasite requires several 
of them to nourish and bring it to maturity, the same as in the 
case of the egg-parasite of the Hessian-fly as discovered by the 
late Mr. Herrick. And as it appears from the careful investiga¬ 
tions of Mr. Le Keux, that the eggs of this group of insects are 
few, and the females drop only one per day, to enable the young 
parasite to obtain the number of eggs it requires for its suste¬ 
nance, the parent, watching her opportunity, deposits one of her 
eggs internally in the ovaries of the flea-beetle or in the passage 
wa y therefrom, and the parasitic larva which hatches from this 
egg. taking up its residence there, consumes the eggs of the flea- 
beetle, one after another, as they become developed, whereby 
none of them will be extruded until after the parasite has obtained 
its growth and ceased to feed. Most singular and truly wonder- 
