Superfamily ICHNEUMONOIDEA 703 



Taxonomy: Townes, 1961. Ent. Soc. Wash., Proc. 63: 103 (syn.). 

 merdarius (Gravenhorst). Que. w. to s.e. Alaska, s. to Fla., s. Tex., and s. Calif.; West Indies, 

 Mexico, Nicaragua; South America; Asia; Europe. Host: Alabama argillacea (Hbn.), 

 Ceramica picta (Harris), Leucania latiuscula H.-S., L. viidtUinea Wlk., Feltia 

 subterranea (F.), Peridroma saucia (Hbn.), Pseudaletia imipiuicta (Haw.), Scoliopteryx 

 libatrix (L.), Scotogramyna trifolii (Rott.), Spodoptera fnigiperda (J. E. S.), S. 

 oniithogalli (Gn.), Heterocampa guttivitta (Wlk.), Schizura concinna (J. E. S.), S. 

 unicornis (J. E. S.), Drepana bilineata (Pack.). 



Ophion merdarius Gravenhorst, 1829. Ichn. Europaea, v. 3, p. 698. 6, 9. 



Ophion purgatus Say, 1836. Boston Jour. Nat. Hist. 1: 239. 6, 9. 



Ophion lateralis Brulle, 1846. In Lepeletier, Hist. Nat. Ins. Hym., v. 4, p. 141. [female]. 



Ophion flaviceps Brulle, 1846. In Lepeletier, Hist. Nat. Ins. Hym., v. 4, p. 142. [female]. 



Ophion volubilis Holmgren, 1869 (1868). Eug. Resa, pt. 2, sec. 1, p. 410. 6, 9. 



Taxonomy: Townes and Townes, 1966. Amer. Ent. Inst., Mem. 8: 181-182 (syn.). 

 texanus (Ashmead). N. Y., s.w. Va., Ohio, Tex., s.e. Wash., n.e. Calif. 



Thyreodon texanus Ashmead, 1890 (1889). U. S. Natl. Mus., Proc. 12: 422. 6. 



Subfamily MESOCHORINAE 



It is certain that most of the members of this subfamily are hyperparasitic, and I speculate 

 that those Mesochorinae which may eventually be proven not to be hyperparasitic will be shown 

 to be cleptoparasitic. Some species of Mesochorinae parasitize other Ichneumonidae, but a 

 greater number parasitize Braconidae. At least four Nearctic species of Mesochorus have been 

 reared from Tachinidae. The hosts of Mesochorinae are internal parasites of various insects, 

 most of the latter being phytophagous. Mesochorinae have been reared from parasites of 

 Lepidoptera, Symphyta, Coleoptera, Miridae, and, according to Dr. C. C. Loan (personal commu- 

 nication, 1975), even Psocoptera. Mesochorines insert the ovipositor into the secondary host and 

 in turn locate the early-instar larva or even the egg of a primary parasite and oviposit inside the 

 latter. 



Dasch (1971) said that "considerable evidence seems to indicate that many species [of 

 Mesochorinae] are primary parasites of lepidopterous and coleopterous larvae," but this state- 

 ment appears to be inaccurate. For Mesochorinae to be primary parasites of these hosts, they 

 would have to spin their own cocoons or emerge from lepidopterous pupae. I do not know of any 

 case in which a mesochorine specimen is mounted with a lepidopterous pupa from which it 

 emerged or is otherwise known with certainty to have emerged from a lepidopterous pupa. In 

 substantiated cases of emergence from lepidopterous pupae, proof of primary parasitism could 

 be made only through dissection of the host remains, because mesochorines may be able to 

 parasitize primary parasites which oviposit into lepidopterous larvae and emerge from the 

 pupae (such as Anomaloninae [Dasch (1971) cited a pubHshed record of a Trichionotus sp. as a 

 host], Metopiinae Ichneumoninae, certain Campopleginae, or meteorideine Braconidae). In any 

 case, the majority of mesochorine specimens labeled as being reared from Coleoptera or 

 Lepidoptera have emerged from cocoons, and when these specimens are mounted together with 

 the cocoons from which they have emerged, the cocoons prove to be those of Braconidae or 

 other Ichneumonidae. The only possible exception that I am aware of is Plectochorus iivatensis 

 (Uchida), a Eurasian species which apparently spins a cocoon of its own and thus appears to be a 

 primary parasite of Grapholitha molesta (Bsk.) (cf. Haeussler, 1940). It is remotely possible that 

 some of the species of Mesochorinae which have been reared from cocoons of sawflies could be 

 primary parasites, but this could not be established without dissecting the contents of the 

 cocoons and determining that they do not include the larval remains of an additional ichneu- 

 monid or an ichneutine braconid. 



Revision: Dasch, 1971. Amer. Ent. Inst., Mem. 16: 1-376 (Nearctic spp.). — Dasch, 1974. Amer. 

 Ent. Inst., Mem. 22: 1-509 (Neotropic spp.). 



Biology: Haeussler, 1940. U. S. Dept. Agr., Tech. Bui. 728: 24-25 (Plectochorus iwatensis 

 [Uchida]). 



Genus CIDAPHUS Foerster 



Cidaphus Foerster, 1868. Naturh. Ver. Rheinlande, Verh. 25: 149. 



