THE TRIBE CHALCrDINI — BURKS 303 



space slightly less than one-third height of compound eye ; combined 

 widths of compound eyes one-fifth greater than interocular space at 

 level of antennal bases; petiole slightly more than twice as long as 

 wide ; gaster usually equal in length to metaf emur. 



Type locality. — "United States." 



7^2/^65.— Holotype, female, British Museum ; comparisons made by 

 Dr. Ch. Ferriere. Synonyms: mttata Ashmead, 40006, U. S. Na- 

 tional Museum; mesillae Cockerell, 4075, U. S. National Museum. 



Dr. Ch. Ferriere has kindly sent me detailed sketches and notes on 

 the type of this species. The type of S. vittata Ashmead differs only 

 in having the color markings very small and the transverse carinae 

 of the mesopraescutum slightly weaker. The type of S. mesUl-ae 

 Cockerell is larger and has very broad color markings on the thorax, 

 but otherwise it cannot be distinguished. I have a series of 54 speci- 

 mens from localities all over the United States, and in this series all 

 gradations are present between the form of vittata^ with its small 

 color bands, and mesillae with the color bands very broad. 



The variation in coloration of this species seems to correlate very 

 well with the mean temperatures of the localities where it has been 

 collected, as the specimens from either high elevations or northern lo- 

 calities have very broad markings, while specimens from southern 

 localities or low altitudes have the color bands narrow. This varia- 

 tion in color does not seem to correlate with variations in humidity, as 

 specimens from the deserts of southern New Mexico or California are 

 identical in coloration with specimens from the coast of Massachusetts. 



Hosts. — I have seen no reared material of this species, but the fol- 

 lowing host records have been published under the name Spilochalcis 

 mttata: Mineola indigenella Zeller [Gossard] (Lepidoptera. Pyrali- 

 dae) ; Laphygma fmgiperda Abbot and Smith [Wilson], Heliothis 

 ohsoleta (FdihTicm?,) [Winburn and Painter] (Noctuidae). 



Distribution. — Alberta, California, Florida. Georgia, Illinois, Indi- 

 ana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, 

 North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, 

 Virginia. 



SPILOCHALCIS MAKIAE (Riley) 



FiGTTBES 8, t; 9, u; 10, fc; 12, / 



Chalcis marine Riley, Amer. Ent., vol. 2, p. 101. 1870; 4th annual report on the 

 noxious, beneficial and other insects of the State of Missouri, p. 109, 1872. — 

 Gentey, Can. Ent., vol. 9, p. 50, 1877. — Bbuxeb, Nebraska Agr. Exp. Stat. 

 Bull. 14, p. 140, 1890 ; Kept. Nebraska State Hort. Soc. for 1S91, p. 220, 1892 ; 

 Preliminary introduction to the study of entomology, p. 101, 1894. 



Smicra mariae (Riley) Cbesson, Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc, vol. 4, pp. 38, 52, 1872. — 

 GLO^^:B, Illustrations of North American entomology, pi. 1. fig. 33, 1878. — 

 Cbesson, Synopsis of the families and genera of the Hymenoptera of Amer- 

 ica north of Mexico, p. 233, 1887. — Smith, Geol. Surv. New Jersey, Catalogue 



