A SYSTEMATIC MONOGRAPH OF THE CHALCIDOID HY- 

 MENOPTERA OF THE SUBFAMILY SIGNIPHORIN^.^ 



By A. ARSilNE GiRAULT, 



Entomologist, Department of Agriculture, Queensland, Australia. 



INTRODUCTION. 



About a year ago Dr. L. O. Howard, at my request, placed a col- 

 lection of slide-mounted Encyrtidae of the subfamily Signiphorinse 

 into my hands for study, sending me later all of the types and the 

 specimens in the collections of the United States National Museum. 

 This combined collection was unique in that it contained, I believe, 

 all of the specimens of the subfamQy known to exist in collections. 

 I have received several other specimens from the collections of the 

 Illmois State Laboratory of Natural History but without adding 

 much of value ; and have added also a few new species collected in Aus- 

 tralia. Having types of all the species with but a single exception, 

 together with a comparatively large miscellaneous collection drawn 

 from all parts of their habitat, an opportunity was presented to 

 make an adequate systematic study of the group. 



The species of the single genus of the subfamily seem to be naturally 

 segregated mto about six species groups according to general colora- 

 tion; four of these groups are easily separable but two of them 

 present much difficulty, their coloration becoming variable and 

 their structure nearly identical. However, of the 14 described 

 species all have proved valid, so far as I was able to determine, with 

 the exception of one. This exception proves to be a color variant 

 of the type-species. The remaining 13 forms when divided into their 

 color groups nearly always have some shght structural character 

 which is correlated with their specific coloration. Many of these 

 structural characteristics are marked, but others not so. In the 

 two closely allied groups spoken of above, however, the only struc- 

 tural characteristic separating most of the species is the presence or 

 absence of a bristle from the surface of the fore wing (called the 



1 It will be noticed in ttiis paper that in connection with the data on the slides certa=:n numbers are 

 occasionally given in addition to the type numbers. Most of these refer to the series of biological 

 notes in the Bureau of Entomology of the Un.ted States Department of Agriculture. Where these 

 notes have given addi+ional data which seemed of importance to this paper they have been mentioned 

 in footnotes by the imdersigned.— J. C. Cea-wford. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 45— No. 1977. 



189 



