368 
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Vol. 11 
THE LIFE HISTORY AND HABITS OF CHLOROPISCA GLABRA 
MEIG., A PREDACEOUS OSCINID (CHLOROPID) 
By J. R. Parker, Assistant Entomologist , Montana Agricultural Experiment Station 
While a majority of Oscinid (Chloropid) larvae are vegetable feeders 
several exceptions to the habit have been noted. Coquillett reared 
Gaurax anchora Loew. from the egg shells of Corydalis cornutus Linn, 
and observed that the larvae of this species would also feed upon the 
molted larval skins and chrysalis shells of Hemerocampa leucostigma S. 
& A. He also reared Gaurax aranece Coq. from an egg sac of Argiope 
riparia Hentz. The same worker reared Madiza oscinina Fall, from 
the egg sac of a spider. More recently Jones 1 has described a new 
species, Botanobia darlingtonice, the larvae of which feed upon dead in¬ 
sects caught by the California pitcher-plant ( Darlingtonia californica 
Torr.). 
While the scavenger habit is apparently quite well developed in the 
Oscinidae, to the best of the writer’s knowledge no species in the family 
has been reported heretofore as predaceous. An account of the habits 
of Chloropisca glabra Meig. showing that the larva is predaceous upon 
the sugar-beet root louse (. Pemphigus betce Doane) is, therefore, of 
interest not only on account of its economic importance but because 
it records a habit new to this important group of insects. 
The development of the predaceous habit within the vegetable feed¬ 
ing family Oscinidae is forecasted by the exceptions noted above. 
Larvae of Gaurax anchora feed upon molted insect skins; larvae of 
Botanobia darlingtonice advance closer to the predaceous habit by 
feeding upon the dead bodies of insect victims of the pitcher-plant; by 
kil ling its own victims, C. glabra goes one step further and become 
truly predaceous. It is also possible to conceive that the predaceous 
habit in this last species has been comparatively recently acquired. 
When the species was first evolved it may have fed upon the roots of 
the host plants of Pemphigus betce; later it may have developed a liking 
for cast skins and the bodies of fungus killed aphids which it would 
meet continuously among the host plant roots; once having acquired a 
taste for the body contents of the underground aphids it would have 
been a very simple matter to include within its diet the slow moving, 
living root louse with which it was so closely associated. 
1 Jones, Frank Morton. Two insect associates of the California pitcher-plant, 
Darlingtonia californica. Entomological News, v. 27, no. 9, p. 389-392, 1916. 
