70 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.63. 



as long as four; four one and one-third times as long as wide, 

 cylindrical, not widened toward the apex; joints six to nine about 

 as long and as wide as four; abdomen ovate, as wide as the thorax, 

 three-fifths as wide as long, rounded apically; segments three to 

 seven united half as long as the second; wings hyaline, extending 

 the length of the last five segments past the apex of the abdomen. 



Type locality. — Newhall, Los Angeles County, California. 



Paratype locality. — San Diego, California. 



Type. — Cat. No. 2284, U.S.N.M. Type female and allotype male 

 selected. 



Redescribed from the type series, four females and three males. 

 According to Ashmead six of these specimens were reared in July, 

 1886, by A. Koebele, from a Cecidomyid gall on an evergreen shrub 

 {Bigelovia or ^r^mma, species) taken at Newhall, Los Angeles 

 County, California. There is also one female in the type series labeled 

 as having been reared from Aspidiotus or Bigelovia, hy the same 

 observer at San Diego, California. 



The males vary greatly in size, two being 0.60 mm. in length. 



35. PLATYGASTER VERNALIS (Myers). 



Polygnotus vernalis Myers, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 53, 1917, p. 255. 



This species seems to be extremely variable, not commonly so as 

 in most other species, but in a most remarkable way. Messrs. Myers 

 and McConnell have reared many specimens of vernalis from the 

 puparia of the Hessian Fly and have found among them forms which 

 have the scutellum divided into two lobes by a deep longitudinal 

 furrow, and the mesonotum divided into six lobes by three furrows, 

 one median and two oblique, the latter converging toward the scu- 

 tellar fovea. The thorax is much shortened in these variants, being 

 no longer than wide or even wider than long and flattened above, 

 wider than the head. This variation is not confined to one sex. Of 

 the ten specimens in the Museum showing such variation, seven are 

 males and three females. All stages of transition are illustrated in 

 this series of ten specimens. When the variation is slight only the 

 scutellum is affected and is divided by a furrow. The mesonotum is 

 next affected and is divided first by a median furrow and later by 

 two oblique ones. 



All of the specimens recorded are from the Eastern States — Penn- 

 sylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. The type and allo- 

 type are from Hagersto^vn, Maryland, and bear the National Museum 

 Cat. No. 21135. I have recently received a number of specimens of 

 vernalis collected by W. H. Larrimer in various parts of Ohio and 

 Indiana. Several of them were observed in April ovipositing in the 

 eggs of Phytopliaga destructor Say. 



