40 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.63. 



31. METEORUS HYPHANTRIAE RUey. 



Meteorus hyphantriae Riley, Rep. Entom. V. S., 1886, p. 532, pi. 10, fig. 4. 



Meteorus oecopsidis Ashmead, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 188S, p. 642. 



Meteorus floridanus Ashmead, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1888, p. 642. 



Meteorus relativus Viereck, Trans. Kansas Acad. Sci. for 1903-04, vol. 19, 1905, 



p. 280. 

 Meteorus triangularis Muesebeck, Canad. Entom., vol. 51, 1919, p. 115. 



Type. — The types of hyphantriae, oecopsisis, jioridanus, and 

 triangularis are in the United States National Museum; that of 

 relativus is in the University of Kansas. 



Little difficulty should be experienced in determining specimens 

 of this species by nieans of the foregoing key. However, hyphantriae 

 exhibits extreme variability with respect to many characters, and 

 one reared series may differ quite markedly in appearance from 

 another; a close examination of all essential characters will be neces- 

 sary to identify the two as the same species. The face, especially 

 in the fe'male, is very narrow, and is finely transversely roughened; 

 the malar space is very short in the female, and very rarely in the 

 male is it nearly as long as the basal width of mandible; antennae 

 with 32 to 38 segments, usually with 32 to 35; lateral face of scutellum 

 nearly always with the posterior transverse polished area rather 

 broad; propodeum rugoso-reticulate, a petiolarea usually more or 

 less distinct; recurrent vein usually interstitial with the first intercubi- 

 tus, occasionally entering the extreme posterior angle of the second 

 cubital cell, very rarely, in the male, going into the first cubital cell; 

 nervellus practically always slightly longer than lower abscissa of 

 basella; the first tergite without fossae on the petiole, and with the 

 postpetiole longitudinally striate, the striae often straight; ovipositor 

 sheaths a little more than half the length of the abdomen. Testa- 

 ceous, more or less marked mth black; antennae nearly always testa- 

 ceous; propodeum and postpetiole usually blackish; the second 

 tergite usually spotted with black laterally, and the following tergites 

 sometimes more or less blackish. 



Bistrihution.—'Wid^Qlj distributed over the entire United States 

 and Canada. 



Hosts. — Hyphantria cunea Drury; H. textor Harris; Malacosoma 

 americana Fabricius (F. M. Webster and J. V. Schaffner) ; M. disstria 

 Hiibner (H. L. Viereck); Drasteria erechtea Cramer (S. Blum); 

 Meliana albilinea Hiibner (C. N. Ainslie) ; Euschausia argentata 

 Packard; Hemileuca maia Drury (C. Heinrich); Paleacrita vernata 

 Peck (B. A. Porter); Alsophila pometaria Harris (B. A. Porter); 

 Perispasta caeculalis Zeller; (Oecopsis) Olethreutes, species (Ashmead) ; 

 Hemerocampa leucostigma Smith and Abbot. 



