The Biology of Schizaspidia Tenuicornis Ashm., A Eucharid Parasite of Camponotus.

Abstract

During the summer of 1921, while engaged in the study of the parasites of Popillia japonica at Koiwai, Iwate-ken, Japan, the writer occasionally made miscellaneous collections of parasitic Hymenoptera by sweeping. Among those secured was found at times numbers of a large metallic-green Eucharid. Realizing that the biology of this very interesting family of Chalcids had never been studied in detail, an effort was made to determine the habits of this species. In the localities where the parasite was abundant the large Camponotus herculeanus sub-sp. japonicus Mayr was very numerous, and was the only species of sufficient size to serve as host to the Eucharid. Several nests were therefore excavated, and the presence of the parasite in numbers in the cocoons was at once established.