A KEVISION OF THE CHALCID-FLIES OF THE EN- 

 CYRTID GENUS CHRYSOPLATYCERUS. 



By P. H. TiMBERLAKE. 



Of the Haicaiian ^iiKjur Flantfrg Association, Honolulu. 



C hrysoplatycerus Ashmead. 18S9 (first described as Rileya How- 

 ard, 1888, not Ashmead) appears to be an exclusively American 

 oenus which probably originated within the tropics and has spread 

 northward through Mexico into California. Up to the present time 

 only two species have been known, the original species G. splendens 

 (Howard) from Southern California and C. howardii Ashmead de- 

 scribed rather indefinitely and uncertainly from Mexico. Recently 

 Mr. G. F. Ferris of Stanford University sent me specimens of a 

 third species which he had collected in the vicinity of San Diego, 

 California. His specimens were reared from a new species of mealy- 

 bug which Mr. Ferris will describe under the name of Pseudococcus 

 adenostomae. Under date of Jan. 2. 1921, Mr. Ferris writes that he 

 wishes credit to be given to Mr. C. R. Gorton, County Commissioner 

 of San Diego County, for the discovery of the material, especially 

 as Mr. Gorton wanted to find out about the parasites. 



In the working up of the material I am indebted to Mr, A. B. 

 Gahan for comparing the female with the type of howardii, and de- 

 sire to express my appreciation of this essential service. 



The male of C hrysoplatycerus has never been described, although 

 Ashmead included the genus in his generic table of the males, the 

 characters given there being wholly suppositional and based on those 

 of the female.^ This practice pursued by Ashmead in case of sev- 

 eral other genera such as Anicetus. Euseniion^ Coccophoctonus, and 

 Zarhopdlus is quite misleading, as the males in these as well as many 

 other Encyrtid genera show a strong sexual dimorphism. 



C hrysoplatycerus was placed also in the wrong tribe by Ashmead, 

 as it is unmistakably an Ectromatine and not a Mirine genus. The 

 same may be said for Zarhopalus, Blepyrus (= Coccophoctonus Ash- 

 mead), Ghalcaspis^ and Aenasius, all of which except Blepyrus show 



iProc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 22, p. 347, 1900, and Mem. Carnegie Mus., vol. 1, No. 4, 

 p. 310, 1904. 



No. 2423— Proceedings U. S. National Museum. Vol. 61— Art. 2. 



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