Notes on a Species of Epipyropidae (Lepidoptera) Parasitic on Metaphaena Species (Hemiptera Fulgoridae) at Amani, Tanganyika

Abstract

The first-instar larva is exceedingly active although, like so many migratory first stage parasitic larvae of different orders of insects, it frequently stops walking, erects the anterior part of its body and waves itself from side to side. In the laboratory they only survive for two or three days-a very few for five days-in the absence of a host. Presumably they find a host by random searching. Having found a host, the larva takes up its position on the dorsum of the abdomen with its head directed towards the posterior end of the host.