ABT. 28 CHALCID FLIES NORTH OF MEXICO BALDUF 33 



The following were sent from the insect collection of Stan- 

 ford University by Dr. Isabel McCracken who reared them: 

 4 females (L. S. J. Lot 554, Sub. 15) from " twig swelling " on 

 Q. agrifolia, May, 1915, Stanford campus, and 3 females and 1 male 

 (L. S. J. Lot 554, Sub. 118) from "twig swelling" on Q. chryso- 

 lepis, Stanford campus, June, 1916. In view of the rearings of 

 j Doctor Kinsey, it seems probable that the present " twig swelling " 

 galls are those of members of the genus Andricus. 



The United States National Museum collection contains three 

 females and a male bearing record number 129 °, which is probably 

 equivalent to number 129 ^. The insects from the latter number 

 came from a cynipid gall on Q. agmfolia^ collected in August, 1885, 

 at Alameda, Calif. The specimens bear the same locality name, one 

 being labeled " Feb.," and another " Mar." There is also a female 

 (Hopk. U. S. 15608''), reared May 24, 1918, by L. H. Weld, from 

 an undetermined gall on Q. agrifolia^ Los Gatos, Calif., and two 

 females (Hopk. U. S. 15605cO, reared by L. H. Weld, June 8 and 

 August 17, 1918, from galls on Q. agrifolia, at Montecito, Inyo 

 County, Calif. 



12. DECATOMA VARIANS Walsh 



Plate 1, Figures 10, 11 



Decatoma varians Walsh. Amer. Ent. and Bot.. vol. 2, no. 10, p. 300, 1870. — 



AsHMEAD, Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc, vol. 14, p. 198, 1887 ; Colorado Biol. Assoc. 



Bull. 1, p. 45, 1890.— ViERECK, Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc, vol. 32, p. 246, 1906.— 



Tbiqgebson, Ann. Ent. Soc. Amelr., vol. 7, p. 8, 1914. 

 Decatoma phellos Ashme.s.d, Can. Ent., vol. 13. no. 6, p. 136, June, 1881. 

 Decatoma TceUoggi Ftxllawat, Journ. New York Ent. Soc, vol. 20, pp. 278, 



279, 1912. 



This species has been much confused with its close relatives, 

 especially with D. dubia^ which Walsh regarded as a variety of 

 varians. The present species is somewhat smaller and, as a whole, 

 much darker; its submarginal band is usually two-thirds or more 

 as broad as long and reaches distinctly beyond the end of the 

 stigmal vein. The best differences are in the proportions of the 

 heads ; in varians the head is about two-thirds as long as broad and 

 subovate in dorsal outline, that of dubia is about half as long as its 

 width and elongate-ovate in shape, transversely. D. varians almost 

 always has the outer face of the hind femur mostly ochreous-yellow, 

 and the hind tibiae mostly black. 



Female. — Length 2.5 to 3.5 mm., fairly robust, colors pale ochreous- 

 yellow, honey yellow, brown, rufous, and black, relative degrees of 

 each extremely variable ; head usually mostly light ochreous-yellow, 

 a black spot on the vertex sometimes not extending beyond the ocelli, 

 67088—32 3 



