ON THE SCOTTISH SPECIES OF OXYURA 87 



The above list of 19 species appears very poor compared with 

 the in species enumerated in Marshall's Catalogue of the British 

 Species. That list includes 67 species of Platygaster and 16 of 

 Synopeas. My impression is that an examination of Walker's types, 

 the author who has described the majority of these species, would 

 lead to a very large reduction in the number of valid species ; and 

 I have no doubt also that if Entomologists would collect them, the 

 number of actual British species would be largely increased. In my 

 list only one species (Amblyaspis tritici} has hitherto been recorded 

 as British. 



The species of Platygasterini, so far as is known with certainty, 

 are parasitic on gall-making or free-living Diptera, chiefly Cecidomyice. 

 It is true that some species have been recorded as having been 

 reared from other insects, e.g. Haltica and Apion, but the presump- 

 tion is that they have been so recorded in error. It is certain that 

 species of Synopeas, P/atygaster, and Amblyaspis have been reared 

 from the nests of Formica rufa, F. pratensis, Lasius fitliginosus, and 

 Solenopsis (cf. Kieffer, "Bull, de la Soc. d'Hist. nat. de Metz," xi. 2), 

 but they may have been parasites of the dipterous inquilines living 

 in the Ant's nests, and not on the Ants themselves. Mr. H. J. 

 Donnisthorpe, who has made a special study of the inquilines of 

 Ants, tells me that a Platygaster has been found in a nest of 

 Formica rufa, by him at Rannoch. 



As the above concludes my Catalogue of the Oxyura 

 which I collected in Scotland it may be useful to give an 

 abstract of the Scotch species known to me. In this list I 

 do not include the Myinaridce, a family of minute, almost 

 microscopic insects, parasitic in the eggs of other insects, for 

 the reason that, with Haliday and Ashmead, I consider them 

 to belong to the Chalcididce, rather than to the Proctotrypidcs. 

 I purpose, however, giving a Catalogue of the Mymarida 



later. 



ABSTRACT. 



Species Species 



Bethylida 3 



DryinincR 49 



Scelioninff . . 1 8 



Proctotrypincc . . 1 1 



Ceraphronince . . 49 



Belytince . . .52 

 Diapriince. . . 46 

 PlatygasterincK . . 19 



247 



Owing to their minute, if not microscopic, size, it is not 

 very easy to make a collection of Oxyura. They may be 

 caught in the ordinary way by the use of the sweeping net 

 and beating umbrella, by examining the refuse at the bottom 



