14 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



the transverse cubital nervures ; both the former are received about 

 the same distance from the latter. 



Belongs to Saussure's Section iii® (Vespides, i. 148), which 

 contains three species from Madeira and the Canaries. The 

 present species cannot well be confounded with any of them, 

 unless it be that a large series of specimens might show that 

 all are forms of one species, of which the present would form 

 a well-marked race. 



AN HISTORICAL NOTE ON THE PARASITISM OF 

 CERTAIN HOMOPTERA. 



By G. W. Kirkaldy. 



The parasitism of certain Homoptera of the families Ful- 

 goridae and Tetigoniidae (or " Jassidae "), by Dryinids, the 

 internal parasites being protected by a conspicuous external 

 seed-like covering lodged beneath the lobes which develop into the 

 tegmina, was first clearly made known by J. Mik, the Austrian 

 dipterist,* although the first notice was as early as 1857, by E. 

 Perris.t 



In 1878, however, C. W. Dale, in his ' History of Glauvilles 

 Wootton,' (p. 304), proposed new generic and specific names, i. e. 

 Homopterophagus dorsettensis, for " a very curious black parasite 

 about the size of a mustard-seed, adhering to the side of various 

 species of the Homoptera where the elytra join the thorax " ; 

 this looks like a little black bag, and Dale considers that it must 

 belong to the Acari ! I have not seen recently Dale's effusion, but 

 have extracted the above particulars from the " Arachnida " for 

 1878, in the ' Zoological Record ' for 1879 (publ. 1881), p. 23. It 

 refers, however, without doubt, to the larval covering of Gonatopus, 

 or allied genus, though of course Dale's names have no value. 



By the way, I think that British students of parasitic 

 Hymenoptera and Diptera would be astonished at the results 

 of captures and careful examination of nymphs and egg- cases 

 of Fulgorids and Tetigoniids. Try it ! 



Honolulu. 



■'■ ' Zur Biologie von Gonatopus pilos^is, Thorns. Ein hymeuoptero- 

 logisches Beitrag" ("Wiener Ent. Zeit. i. pp. 215-21 (Sept., 1882), plate iii., 

 in which the bymenopteron is noted as parasitic on Deltoceplialiis xantlio- 

 neurus (= assimilis, Fallen.) ). 



f " Nouvelles excursions dans les grandes Landes " (Ann. Soc. Linn. 

 Lyon (2), iv. pp. 172-3), where Athysanus maritimus [= Thamnotettix] i 

 stated to be parasitised by Govatopns pedcstris. 



