192 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



of the remainder of the insect. The colour of these spots is certainly not 

 unlike that of the luminous organs of the Lampyrids, yet it is hard to 

 imagine what possible use a truly diurnal insect would have for luminosity, 

 and how it produces light in a portion so obviously unfitted for the 

 delicate photogenic tissues as a thin, brittle elytron. Some of the related 

 species show an extension of the yellow spot into a band completely 

 crossing the elytra, together with a similar colouration along the front edge 

 and a portion of the sides of the wing-cases, while still others have nearly 

 one-half of the elytra surface taken up with this yellowish, non-metallic- 

 colouration. 



ON THE IDENTITY OF ( TRICHOGRAMMA) NEOTRICHO- 

 GRAMMA JAPONICUM (ASHMEAU). 



BY A. A. GIRAULT, URBANA, ILLINOIS. 



In the first pages of the current (tqii) volume of the Transactions 

 of the American Entomological Society, I described a new Japanese genus 

 of the family Trichogrammatidce based on this species, whose identity at 

 the time was more or less uncertain. The genus was JVeotrichograjuina, 

 and h^iox^ japoniciim was definitely known, the type species of the new 

 genus was named acutiveiitre MS.: formerly, also, I identified the species 

 as N. acutiventre Girault MS., namely, at the time the species was first 

 seen by me. However, the error was corrected in the original description 

 of the genus before publication, but it is desirable to make a brief explana- 

 tion concerning the basis for claiming identity. This explanation should 

 be expected, if not demanded, for the reason that we have already taken 

 too much for granted in systematic work. 



Trichogrammatids have been especially difficult to identify, mostly 

 for the reason that many of the species were wrongly placed as regards 

 genera and also briefly, or else erroneously, described and the type speci- 

 mens missing or in bad condition. For this reason it once seemed hope- 

 less to me to attempt to identify more than a small fraction of the described 

 species of these minute parasites. Because of the confusion existing in 

 the literature concerning the definition of Tric/iogram^na Westwood, and 

 more especially because a comparatively large number of species of 

 different genera had been described as members of this genus, I was forced 

 to conclude that the position oi japofiicum was uncertain generically ; its 

 brief original description gave no generic characters, the author of the 

 species had previously described several common species of the family as 

 members of Tricho gramma^ which subsequently have been shown to be 



June, 1911 



