152 NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN CYNIPID^, 



NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN CYNIPID.E, WITH DESCRIP- 

 TIONS OF SEVERAL NEW SPECIES. 



By Walter W. Froggatt. 



As far as I am aware, nothing has been written on the Aus- 

 tralian CynipidcB, although a large number of the small parasitic 

 hymenoptera, many of which are inquilines with the true Cynipidcc, 

 have been described in European publications, chiefly by Francis 

 Walker in his "Monograph of Chalcididae" and in his miscella- 

 neous papers. 



In this short paper I propose to describe three species common 

 about Sydney on the Acacias, A. discolor and A. longijolia ; and in 

 my next conti'ibution on this group to work out those found on 

 the Eucalypts. For the last three years I have been collecting 

 and breeding out the gall-making inhabitants, and their 

 parasites, from such excrescences and galls as I could find in the 

 bush or obtain from my numerous friends interested in this work. 

 One of the difficulties attending the breeding of the Cynijndce is 

 that the parasitic wasps so outnumber the gall-makers that one can 

 breed out hundreds of Chalcids and Proctotrupids without ever 

 obtaining a perfect specimen of the Cynipid host. I believe that 

 when our gall-flies are worked out, it will be found that Australia 

 contains a large number of species, and I think that, though 

 working under the disadvantages of want of access to type 

 specimens of many genera, and a rather hazy knowledge of the 

 classification of some of them, yet I shall be doing useful work in 

 studying their life-histories, by drawing and describing them from 

 living specimens, and by noting their parasites ; work requiring 

 time, perseverance and a large amount of material; but there is at 

 least the consolation that, if not successful one year, there is a 



