124 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVI. 



Little is known about the life-histories of gall-flies in India, and the 

 study of this interesting family greatly needs some energetic workers. 

 Fig. 41 shows a gall-fly imago. 



Fam. V. Proctotrypidae. 



Small Insects with only a few or at times no nervures in the wings : 

 the prothorax is closely adherent to the mesothorax, reaching backwards 

 at the sides to the points where the wings are attached. There is often 

 a black spot (stigma) on the front wing which distinguishes them from 

 Cynipidse. The abdomen is pointed, and the pointed apex is often 

 deflexed downwards ; the ovipositor is not coiled but is retractile, and 

 when extended is tubular in form and apparently a continuation of the 

 tip of the body. This tubular ovipositor forms the chief distinguishing 

 feature of the family from other parasitic Hymenoptera. 



The larvae, as far as our present knowledge of these Insects goes, live a 

 completely parasiiic life 



in the bodies or eggs of s ^^-!?7 s ^iis=UJL-i= 

 other insects or of spi- 

 ders, one or several 

 being present in a single 

 egg or insect's body. 



Fig. 42.— Pupation of Proctotrypes sp. in body of a 

 beetle larva (after Sharp). 

 They usually pupate in the position in which they have fed, enclosed each 



one in a more or less distinct cocoon. 



Fig 43. 



-Platygaster oryzce which is 

 parasitic on the rice-fly pest. 

 Antenna, enlarged, is shown 

 to right. (Bengal.) 



Little is known about this family in India. Fig. 43 shows the 

 minute Proctotrypid known as Platygaster oryzce, Cameron, which is 



In fig. 42 Dr. Sharp* has shown a 

 remarkable case of this pupation ; 

 "a larva of some beetle has had a 

 number of eggs laid in it by 

 a species of Proctotrypes. The 

 grubs hatching out from the eggs 

 have fed upon the beetle larva 

 and then pupated ; the pupae are 

 shown projecting from the body 

 of the host, a pair of the parasites 

 issuing from each segmental 

 division in a remarkably symme- 

 trical manner." 



In the Cambridge Natural History, Insects, Part I (Vol. V). 



