. Bulletin. ,being admirably fitted to work their way through rather heavy soil withlittle apparent effort. Outside of our cages, we have noticed copulation only in cultivatedfields and along roadways, and always on the surface of the is not necessary to hatching, for we have often obtainedfertile eggs from unfertilized females, but these eggs invariably yieldedmales. Phyllophaga grubs are the principal hosts of Tiphia, but we 61 have reared T. punctata from larvae attacking Ligyrus gibbosus andAnoniala grubs, and have found Cyclocephala grubs bearing eggs of twospecies (p
. Bulletin. ,being admirably fitted to work their way through rather heavy soil withlittle apparent effort. Outside of our cages, we have noticed copulation only in cultivatedfields and along roadways, and always on the surface of the is not necessary to hatching, for we have often obtainedfertile eggs from unfertilized females, but these eggs invariably yieldedmales. Phyllophaga grubs are the principal hosts of Tiphia, but we 61 have reared T. punctata from larvae attacking Ligyrus gibbosus andAnoniala grubs, and have found Cyclocephala grubs bearing eggs of twospecies (probably T. punctata and T. inornaia) in the tield, these beinghowever, exceptional cases. The female Tiphia stings if given oppor-tunity, but the sting causes only a momentary itching, differing in thisrespect from that of the female Elis, which is sometimes quite species of Tiphia under discussion look very much alike, and abrief general account of their appearance is sufficient here. Indeed the. Tiphia transversa Say, female. taxonomy of this group has never been satisfactorily worked out, whichfact accounts for much of the confusion in literature. They are entirelyshining black with grayish hairs on the head, thorax, abdomen, and legs :the abdomen is very noticeably constricted between the first and secondsegments (Fig. 1) ; and the wings vary from transparent to brown, moreor less deeply tinged. The males average about one-half inch in lengthand are more slender than the females, which average about three-fourths 62 inch in length. The males are readily distinguished by the black, curvedstylus or spine projecting upwards at the tip of the abdomen, sometimes,however, pressed to the body and more or less inconspicuous. , The egg. pure white when first laid, gradually becomes pale flesh-color and finally cream-color or pale brown. It is elliptical in form,averaging for the species under discussion mm. in length and .5 thickness (Fig. 2). Only the head of
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Keywords: ., booka, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectnaturalhistory
