296 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [July, 'l2 



Notes on the Hymenoptera Chalcidoidea. 

 By A. A. GIRAULT, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. 

 i. A NEW TRICHOGRAMMATID FROM THE UNITED STATES. 



In the Transactions of the American Entomological Society, 

 Volume XXXVII, 1911, pp. 2-6, pi. I, figs. 1-2, a new genus 

 and species of the Chalcidoid family Trichogrammatidse was 

 described with the name of ' Aphclmoidca scmifuscipennis 

 Girault. Recent additions to this genus comprising four new 

 species discovered in Australia lead me to review the group 

 and I now find that in the material upon which was based the 

 description of the type of the genus two distinct species were 

 represented instead of but the one. This error came about 

 very naturally by supposing the two distinct forms represented 

 in the description of semifiiscipennis to be the two sexes of that 

 species. If the original description of the genus be consulted, 

 it will be seen that the male was described as differing from 

 the female by a very striking characteristic,, a kind not usually 

 sexual, namely the presence of a broad naked path across the 

 fore wing. Later examination of one of the so-called males 

 upon which the description was based (captured at Urbana, 

 Illinois, July 27, 1910) led to the discovery that it was a fe- 

 male, evidenced by the fact that the genitalia could not be dis- 

 tinguished from that of the females of the genus, though the 

 actual presence of an ovipositor could not be demonstrated. 

 Nevertheless the reasoning stands thus : 



(1) This specimen could not be distinguished structurally 

 from the females of the other four species and its ovipositor 

 was probably concealed within its valves, which were visible. 



(2) Males of the genus with the exception of the two so- 

 called of semifiiscipennis are unknown (about forty specimens 

 of the genus have been captured, all females). 



(3) Secondary sexual characters in the family are usually 

 confined to antennal structures (or some more fundamental 

 change than that mentioned previously), and 



(4) Differences in degree of wing fumation and arrange- 

 ment of the discal ciliation are known to be specific characters 



