362 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



(6) M. bipunctatus -Boh. . . (= erythrothorax Nees.) reared 



from the larvae of Laverna epi- 

 lobiella and Hypsolophus mar 

 gin ellus. 



(7) M. brevicaudis Ratz. .Reared by Bouche from the berries 



of Sorbus aucuparia. 



(8) M.pistacice^Ad\. (Walk.)Reared from Pistacia lentiscus and 



P. terebinthus ( ? seeds). 



Finally, Fritz Wachtl, in the Wiener Entomologische Zeit- 

 schrift, 1884, pp. 3S-'9, records Megastigmus collar is Boh. 

 from the seeds of roses in which the larva was observed without 

 trace of any host larva, and in a later article he claims the same 

 phytophagic habit for M. pictus. 



In the U. S. National Museum there are but two species of the 

 genus, both of them undescribed, viz : 



(1) Megastigmus n. sp This is represented by one male and 



two female specimens from J. L. 

 Zabriskie, Nyack, N. Y., Feb. 6, 

 1884. It was reared from the 

 Cynipid gall Callirhytis scitulus 

 Bassett. 



(2) Megastigmus \~\. \> Represented by one male and one 



female specimen reared by Miss 

 Mary E. Murtfeldt, Kirk wood, 

 Mo., Oct. 18, 1881, from the seed 

 capsule of Physocarpus opuli- 

 folius. 



From this record it will be seen that there is every reason to 

 conclude that the genus is essentially parasitic, chiefly upon gall- 

 making Cynipidas ; but the circumstantial facts communicated by 

 Mr. Borries, connected with the species inhabiting the seeds of 

 conifers, as well as WachtFs observations, certainly justify the 

 presumption that some of the species of the genus may be phy- 

 tophagic. It would indeed be remarkable that the host in such a 

 large number of seeds as that examined by Mr. Borries should 

 have been so invariably destroyed that only a single Cecidomyid 

 larva was found, and this may have been entirely independent of 

 any connection with the Megastigmus. 



I do not overlook the fact that, in his paper on the Biology of 

 the Chalcididae (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. XIV, p. 586), Mr. 

 Howard, in discussing Wachtl's observations in reference to Me 

 gastigmus, considers them inconclusive, but the other facts pre 

 sented herewith certainly strengthen the presumption of phyto- 

 phagism. 



