OF WASHINGTON. 359 



IS MEGASTIGMUS PHYTOPHAGIC ? 

 BY C. V. RlLEY. 



I have recently received a very interesting letter from a valued 

 correspondent, Mr. Herman Borries, of Copenhagen, Denmark, 

 which hardly admits of abbreviation and which conveys suffi 

 ciently important information to justify, with the author's permis 

 sion, its translation for publication : 



During the years 1886 and 1887 the seeds of the Fir (Abies pectinata 

 D. C.) in the forests of Denmark were destroyed so thoroughly that not 

 a single healthy seed could be found. Cones which in 1887 were sent to 

 me for examination did not show anything peculiar externally, but the 

 apparently healthy seeds contained each a small larva of a Pteromalid of 

 the family Torymidse. This larva had dorsally seven small tubercles 

 from between the segments and which serve for locomotion. 



From two tons of cones kept in cages only a single species of Torymids 

 developed from this larva in the spring of 1888, viz., Megastigmus stro- 

 bilobius Rtzb., which had been entirely lost sight of since the time or 

 Ratzeburg. Dr. Gustav Mayr, of Vienna, has confirmed the correctness 

 of this determination ; the species had hitherto remained unknown to him. 

 The imagos appeared in thousands of specimens, but exclusively females, 

 and not a single other insect was bred which could give any clew regard 

 ing the host. 



Next year (1888) the seeds were perfectly healthy and the destroyer 

 could not be found. 



To the German forestry entomologists the matter remains a mystery, 

 and in the literature I fail to find anything on the subject. The host I 

 suppose to be a still undescribed species of Grapholitha. (This Megastig 

 mus is herewith sent under number E.} 



At the seed dealers I found the same Megastigmus in fir-tree seeds from 

 Germany, but also here no trace of other insects or insect larvae could be 

 found. 



I had occasion to examine the seeds of rare and valuable North Ameri 

 can species of Fir trees and found also in them species of Megastigmus, 

 sometimes in large numbers, (J and 9' one individual in each seed. 

 These seeds were collected in the fall of 1887 in the mountains of Oregon, 

 in the Sierra Nevada, etc., and shipped direct to Copenhagen, whei'e they 

 were kept in glass jars and exhibited in 1888 at the Agricultural Exposi 

 tion. During the exposition the Torymids gnawed their way out from 

 the seeds and remained in the jars until I examined them. Only a single 

 Dipteron issued from the seed's of Abies concolor Lindl., but with this ex 

 ception not a single other insect, and in the intact seeds nothing could be 

 found. 



It is worthy of mention that in the preceding year (1886) these valuable 

 seeds could not be obtained at all because, as was reported from Oregon, 



