20 PKOCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.80 



Pyrausta pertextalis Lederer taken at Bedford and Hudson, Mass. 

 The type series is recorded as apparently having been parasitic on 

 Pyrausta theseusalis Walker. 



10. MACROCENTRUS GIFUENSIS Ashmead 



Macrocentrus gifuensis Ashmead, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 30, p. 191, 1906. 



Type. — In the United States National Museum. 



The following discussion and descriptive notes apply to the species 

 that has been recently introduced into the United States from Europe 

 and Japan as a parasite of the European corn borer {Pyrausta 

 nuhilalis Hiibner), and has become established at several points 

 in the area infested by that pest. I am not altogether satisfied that 

 this parasite is identical with gifuensis, but owing to the variability 

 within species of Macrocentrus, and to the fact that the two speci- 

 mens comprising the type series of gifuensis appear to be somewhat 

 abnormal, it seems advisable for the present to continue the use of 

 this name for the parasite of the corn borer. 



Very similar to harrisi and pyraustae but separable by the charac- 

 ters mentioned in the key and in the comments under those species. 

 Face sparsely shallowly punctate ; clypeus long, at least half as long 

 as face; mandibles short, not, or scarcely, meeting at tips, the teeth 

 very short; longest segment of maxillary palpus distinctly shorter 

 than second segment of flagellum; malar space only about half £is 

 long as clypeus; ocell-ocular line more than twice diameter of an 

 ocellus; antennae normally 40 to 44 segmented; notauli foveolate; 

 propodeum finely rugulose, also metapleura posteriorly; apical 

 teeth of trochanters minute, indistinct; radius arising from about 

 middle of stigma; radial cell going nearly to wing apex; nervulus 

 a little postf ureal; first discoidal cell very long; mediella hardly 

 twice lower abscissa of basella, the latter usually about twice the 

 nervellus ; abdomen slender ; first tergite in female about three times 

 as long as broad at apex, relatively a little shorter in the male ; first, 

 second, and basal half of third, tergites longitudinally aciculate; 

 ovipositor sheaths as long as the abdomen. 



There is much variation in color: The head is always black, but 

 the color of the thorax ranges from entirely testaceous to mostly 

 black, with only the venter, the pleura below, and usually the pre- 

 scutum, pale ; usually at least the pronotum is blackish or somewhat 

 infuscated; the abdomen is usually black or blackish with the third, 

 or the second and third tergites mostly pale; sometimes the first 

 tergite is also mostly yellowish; the legs are yellow; the wings 

 hyaline. 



Many specimens reared from Pyrausta nubilolis and received at 

 the European Corn Borer Laboratory, Arlington, Mass., from Europe 

 and Japan have been examined. 



