1913]. 253 



A NOTE CONCERNING CERTAIN GASES OF STYLOPISATION. 

 BY THE REV. F. D. MOUICE, M.A., F.E.S. 



There seem to be so few definite records of " stylopisation " in 

 Palaearctic Fossorial Hymenoptera, or Palsearctic Bees, belonging to 

 other genera than Andretm and Halicfus, that I think it may be worth 

 while to enumerate a few cases which have come under my personal 

 observation. Unfortunately I have only the very slightest acquaint- 

 ance with the " characters," &c., of Strepsiptera, so that I can name 

 neither the species nor even the genera of the parasites here to be 

 recorded, but only of the victims which I have seen infested by them. 



Commencing with the Fossors :— 



(1) In Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1911, p. 99, I have mentioned a 

 stylopised $ of TachysjjJiex maeulicornis, E. Saund., taken at Biskra 

 by Mr. Eaton, and now in the S. Kensington Museum. I learnt after- 

 wards from Mr. W. Dwight Pierce, author of a very important recent 

 " Revision " of the Strepsiptera (Smiths. Inst., Btill. 66, Washington, 

 1909), that the genus TacJiysphex had not been previously recorded 

 among those liable to stylopisation. 



(2) I have sent to Mr. Pierce a specimen, taken by myself, but 

 where exactly I cannot at the moment remember, of Stizus distin- 

 guendns, Handl., ? , infested by a Strepsipteron. There are a few 

 records of stylopisation in the genus Stizus, but not, I believe, in this 

 species, nor in the group of Stizus to which it belongs. 



(3) I have now before me two stylopised c? c? of Ammophila — 

 the one (a Psammophila) tydei, Guill., the other (an Ammophila sensu 

 stricto) Jieydeni, Dahlb. In both cases the Strepsipterous parasites are 

 very large, and their presence produces a quite hideous disfigurement 

 of the victim's abdomen. The tydei contains three of these creatures, 

 two under the 4th abd. segment and one under the 5th. In the Jieydeni 

 only one Strepsipteron is present, but it is sufiicient to distort the 

 appearance of its host in a really ghastly fashion ! 



The only Bees I can at present mention in this connection are :— 



(1) A ? of Panurgus cavannte, Grib., which I took at Jericho in 



April, 1899 ; and 



(2) A c? of the same species which I found in the same place 



just ten years later (April 7th, 1909). 



In both these cases the parasite is imbedded under the 4th abd. 

 segment of the host. The ^ has only one of them, the ? has two, 



