Report of the State Extomologist. 27 



The Chalcid Parasites of CECiDoaiYiA' Betul^ "Winn. 



From some galls of the above species of the transformed seeds of the 

 catkins of white birch, Betula alba, received from Mr. Peter Inchbald, 

 of Fulwith Grange, Harrogate, England, three species of Chalcid 

 parasites were obtained, which, being submitted to Mr. How^ard of 

 the Agricultural Department at Washington, were determined, gener- 

 ically, as Torymus sp., Q, Tetrastichus sp., and Entedon s-p. — one female 

 and five males. The galls were kindly sent that they might give me 

 their Cecidomyian inmate for comparison with our native species» 

 but not a single one was disclosed. The parasites emerged during 

 April sixteenth to Api'il twenty-seventh. 



Some infested catkins, which had been collected by mo during the 

 mouth of October 188G, also failed to give any of the producing insects, 

 probably from having been deprived of moisture during the winter 

 and spring, as Mr. Inchbald has stated in his letter to me, that they 

 require moisture for their development and need to be sprinkled with 

 water occasionally. Some galls, gathered in Albany on March twenty- 

 first, which had begun to disclose their imagines on May fifth, also 

 gave out quite a number of Chalcid parasites, the first of which made 

 their appearance on April twenty-eighth. Others emerged about the 

 middle of May, and continued to appear until the' twenty-fifth of 

 June — the last date recorded. They were quite numerous. As it 

 would be of no little interest to compare these with the European 

 i:»arasites above noticed, they were also sent to Mr. Howard for his 

 examination, who returned the following answer: 



" T'hey are different from those bred from the English specimens. It 

 wdll probably be necessary to found a new genus of the Pteromalincs 

 for them. In some characters they come close to Merisu^, of which 

 Professor Riley has bred and described two species from Cecidomyia 

 dedructor [^Proc. U. S. National Mmeum, viii, 1885, pp. 413, 416] but the 

 metanotal and claval characters separate them from this genus." 



Isosoma hordei (Harris). 



The Joint-worm Fly. 



(Ord. Hymenoptera: Fam. Chalcididje.) 



Harris : in New Eng. Farmer, ix, July 23, 1830, No. 1, p. 2 (original descrip- 

 tion) ; Treat. Ins. New Eng., 1852, p. Ml; Ins. Inj. Veg., 1862, pp. 

 551-561 (as Euryioma h.); Ent. Corr., 1869, p. .361 {Ichneumon h.). 



Fitch : in Trans. N. Y. St. Agricul. Soc, xxi, 1862, pp. 830-851 ; 7th Kept, (in 

 6th-9th Repts.) Ins. N. Y., 1865, pp. 144-165, pi. 1, fig. 1 (as Eurytoma 

 tritici, E. hordei, and E. secalis). 



