Dec. 20, 1915 
Biology of Apanteles militaris 
503 
ness of the skin, except in newly-molted fifth-stage larvae. In such cases 
they would run along the back of the host, jabbing with the ovipositor 
but never succeeding in puncturing the skin. 
The eggs, when dissected from the body of a caterpillar immediately 
following oviposition, are found to be separate. 
Oviposition in the field under natural conditions resulted in the 
following numbers of cocoons collected from single hosts: 56, 90, 71, 
79, 90, 7,113, and 66. In the laboratory from 8 to 72 eggs were deposited 
in one oviposition of less than one second, and in one case of four oppo¬ 
sitions 210 eggs were deposited in the same host. The extreme rapidity 
of oviposition is apparently due to the activity of the caterpillar, which 
usually immediately recognizes its enemy, rapidly smearing her with 
saliva and often biting her. 
parthenogenesis 
During November and December a number of experiments were con¬ 
ducted in the laboratory to determine whether parthenogenesis takes 
place. Unfertilized females were obtained from separate cocoons and 
were allowed to oviposit in small caterpillars, which they readily did. 
Males emerged from all the cocoons of A. militaris originating from these 
caterpillars, clearly showing that this species is parthenogenetic and 
indicating that unfertilized females give rise to a generation of males. 
FEEDING EXPERIMENTS AND LONGEVITY 
Adults which emerged on August 14 were confined in a lantern-globe 
cage in which grass was growing. They were fed on a mixture of honey 
and water, this being sprayed in minute droplets on the grass and walls 
of the cage. The adults were of both sexes and were kept alive for some 
time, the last one dying on September 1. 
One female used in opposition experiments was kept alive for eight 
days in a test tube, being fed honey, and another under the same condi¬ 
tions lived for seven days. 
On November 6 and 7 a large number of newly emerged males were 
confined and fed in two lantern-globe cages indoors, as described above. 
These males were not allowed to copulate, and many lived until the first 
of December, the last dying on December 9 and 10. 
WINTERING FORMS 
All attempts at this station (La Fayette, Ind.) to winter this parasite 
under various conditions while in the cocoon have been unsuccessful. 
Mr. G. G. Ainslie, stationed at Nashville, Tenn., found this year (1915) 
that the army worm passed the winter there as young larvae and, further, 
that specimens under observation were parasitized in the fall, for the 
parasites completed their growth and emerged this spring. Again, 
according to Gibson (1, p. 27), the army worm winters in Canada as 
