OF WASHINGTON, VOLUME XV, 1913. 9 



CRITICAL NOTES ON SOME SPECIES OF MYMARID^ FROM 

 THE SANDWICH (HAWAIIAN) ISLANDS, WITH COMPARATIVE 

 NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN, NORTH AMERICAN, AND EUROPEAN 

 FORMS. 



(Hymenoptera; Chalcidoidea.) 



BY A. A. GIRAITLT. 



I have recently obtained a few specimens of Mymaridse from 

 the Sandwich Islands through the kindness of Mr. Otto H. Swezey, 

 all of the genus Polynema Haliday; also I have captured in North- 

 ern Queenlsand and in Fiji one or two species of the family com- 

 mon also to these islands and in one case to North America. The 

 Myrmaridae of Australia also, now, are tolerably well known to 

 me. Inasmuch as the Sandwich Islands are situated in a position 

 geographically between North America, Fiji, and Australia, it is 

 interesting from the standpoint of geographical distribution of 

 animals to make this comparison, since it will be shown as prob- 

 able that most of the indigenous forms of the family occurring in 

 Hawaii, North America, and Australia (also Europe) are quite 

 peculiar to those continents, fulfilling our expectations. It is also 

 shown probable that such species as are common to several of 

 the continents or islands have been distributed through commerce 

 or else are parasitic upon widely distributed species or genera or 

 families of insects. I make the detailed comparisons herewith. 



SUBFAMILY GONATOCERIN.^. 



Genus ALAPTUS Haliday. 



1. Alaptus immaturus Perkins. 



Perkins described this species in 1905 from Bundaberg, Queens- 

 land, Australia, it having been reared from leaves of sugar cane 

 infested with leaf-hopper eggs, but these latter were doubtfully 

 the host. In the second volume (part vi) of the Fauna Hawaiien- 

 sis, Cambridge, England (1910, p. 661), the same author records 

 the species from the Sandwich Islands, "Oahu and probably all 

 the islands; bred from the eggs of Pso'cidse." But previously, also 

 in the introduction to the bulletin containing the original descrip- 

 tion of the insect, on page xxiv, it was stated in regard to its host: 

 "Eggs of Psocid feeding on fungus growing on honeydew excreted 

 by leaf -hoppers." Thus, the doubtful host implied in the original 

 description was given by mistake, probably, and the host is a 

 psocid, as would be expected. Since, I have captured the species 

 in several localities in North Queensland, once from the foliage 



1 Contribution No. 2, Entomological Laboratory, Sugar Experiment 

 Stations, Mackay, Queensland. 



