Natural host.—Cockroach, Australia, Queensland (Girault, 1915).
Anastatus floridanus Roth and Willis
Natural host.—Eurycotis floridana, U.S.A., Florida (Roth and Willis, 1954a).
Experimental hosts.—Blatta orientalis, Eurycotis floridana, and Periplaneta americana, U.S.A. (Roth and Willis, 1954a).
Adult behavior.—Female wasps are sexually receptive almost immediately on leaving the oötheca. Mating takes 3-4 seconds. Males mate repeatedly and may fertilize several females; females may also mate more than once. At about 80° F. the female wasps lived 2-4 days, males one day.
Oviposition.—The female wasp first probes the oötheca with her sheathed ovipositor until she finds an acceptable spot; she then drills through the wall of the oötheca with her ovipositor. One female oviposited for 5 hours, but briefer periods were more usual. We have seen six or more females ovipositing simultaneously into an oötheca of Eurycotis floridana. One female was seen to feed on material that oozed from the oviposition puncture. The wasp (pl. [34], A) may oviposit into the oötheca of E. floridana while it is still being carried by the female, as well as in oöthecae that have been dropped and which have hard walls. Eggs 36 days old were successfully parasitized.
Development.—In Eurycotis floridana: In the laboratory, development was completed in 34-36 days at about 85° F. This time was regulated to some extent by the number of parasites in the oötheca.
There is evidence that larvae eat unhatched wasp eggs or other larvae. In 34 oöthecae exposed to many female wasps, the maximum number of parasites to emerge was 306; yet an average of 601 wasp larvae were dissected from four oöthecae that had each been exposed to 50 female wasps one week earlier. The larvae usually eat all the host eggs. Cockroach eggs that were not eaten by the wasp larvae sometimes developed but usually failed to hatch. Adult wasps made one to six emergence holes in the oötheca; the average number in 42 oöthecae was two holes.
Number of parasites per oötheca.—In Blatta orientalis: One of 111 oöthecae exposed to female wasps yielded 48 parasites. In Eurycotis floridana: One oötheca parasitized in the field yielded 68 parasites; 8 oöthecae exposed to single wasps for their entire lifespan yielded an average of 50 ± 6 parasites (range 23-81); 34 oöthecae exposed to many wasps for their entire lifespan yielded an average of 198 ± 8 parasites (range 93-306). In Periplaneta americana: Nine oöthecae of 152 exposed to the wasps were found to be parasitized when dissected; 11 adults emerged from one oötheca; no parasites emerged from the other 8 oöthecae.