264 BRUES. 



anticipated, due not only to their strangely modified egg-laying 

 apparatus but on account of a type of variation which they exhibit 

 that appears to be quite different from any hitherto reported among 

 the females of insects. 



Previous to a careful examination it appeared probable that two 

 species were represented in the series, one with the abdomen lengthened 

 to a varying degree in different individuals and a second with the 

 abdomen short like that of most genera of Platygastridee. Closer 

 study has shown, however, that no less than six species, distributed in 

 as many genera, are included, in addition to some males which I 

 cannot associate with the females of any of the species in the lot. 



These forms from Kartabo, described on a later page, are as follows: 



Polymecus (Dolichotrypes) minor sp. nov. 

 Synopeas meridionalis sp. nov. 

 Gastrotrypes spatulatus gen. et sp. nov. 

 Polygnotus simplex sp. nov. 

 Platygaster tubulosa sp. nov. 

 Isostasius crassus sp. nov. 



Three of them, Dolichotrypes, Gastrotrypes and Platygaster have the 

 apical portion of the abdomen, the ovipositor, or both, lengthened and 

 modified to reach their hosts within the wood, while the others are 

 apparently in no way specially adapted to the habits of the host. The 

 latter must, therefore, be able to parasitize only host larva which are 

 feeding very close to the surface of the wood unless they may have 

 active first-stage larvse, but this does not seem probable, since no 

 planidium forms or other free-living larvse are known to occur within 

 the family. ^ 



In 1911 Crawford and Bradley ('11) described the genus Dolicho- 

 trypes in which they placed a single North American species, D. 

 hoiMnsi. This remarkable insect had been first collected in West 

 Virginia by Dr. Hopkins who found the females supposedly ovipositing 

 in the bodies of dipterous larvse living in a stump. Later, in 1897, 

 Professor J. H. Comstock found the same species near Ithaca, New 

 York. He noted them in large numbers, the " females busily inserting 

 the long part of the abdomen into the intercellular spaces of the wood 

 near the bark. They were confined to the outer two inches of the 



1 The larva; of some other species of Polygnotus, Platygaster and Synopeas 

 which have been observed are cyclopoid when first hatched, cf. Marchal, 04, 

 Marchal '06, Richardson '14. 



