184 THE EARLY STAGES OF TABANID^ 



"Male. — Length 0.8 mm. Black, but with the head, presternum, and legs 

 testaceous; the antennae twelve-jointed, brown- black, with all the joints of the 

 flagellum, except the pedicel and the last joint, small, moniliform, joints three to 

 five increasing in size but smaller than pedicel, joints six to the penultimate a 

 little wider than long; abdomen not, or only slightly, longer than the head and 

 thorax united, the genitalia long, exserted, curving downwards." 



"Habitat. — Havana, Illinois." 



"Types in collections of the Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History and 

 in my (Ashmead's) collection." 



"Described from eleven male and nine female specimens bred from the eggs of a 

 common horse-fly, Tahanus atratus Fabr." 



Hine (1906) also has observed Phanurus tahanivorus and reports 

 that he reared more than a hundred specimens from a single cluster 

 of eggs. 



Phanurus tabani Mayr. — In his monograph of the N. A. Procto- 

 trypidas,^' Ashmead characterized four species belonging to this 

 genus, none of which, however, are closely allied to Phanurus tahani- 

 vorus. On the contrary, it appears to resemble more closely three 

 European species described under the genus Telenomus; viz., Teleno- 

 mus othus Hal., Telenomus laricis Hal., and Telenomus tabani Mayr. 



Dr. Gustav Mayr, *4n his excellent revision of the European 

 species of Telenomus" did not recognize the validity of Thomson's 

 genus Phanurus. 



Ashmead, however, believes that, as defined in his monograph, the 

 genus can be readily separated from Telenomus, although both Hali- 

 day and Walker have described Telenomi which should now be rele- 

 gated to Phanurus; while Thomson, in his definition of Telenomus, 

 has included species that really belong to the genus Hadronotus 

 Forster. 



These errors, according to Ashmead, probably induced Dr. Mayr 

 to reject the validity of Phanurus in his work (cited above). 



It is interesting to note that Phanurus (Telenomus) tabani Ma)n: 

 has habits similar to Phanurus tabanivorus, the species having been 

 bred by Brauer from a European horse-fly, Tabanus sp. 



Phanurus tabanivorus, although evidently related, is somewhat 

 larger in the female sex, smoother, with the joints of the antennae 



''Ashmead, N. A. Proctotrypidce, Monograph, pp. 140 and 141. 



