A NEW HYMENOPTEROUS PARASITE ON ASPIDIOTUS 

 PERNICIOSUS COMST.* 



By Daniel G. Tower, Amherst, Mass. 



This parasite was reared during October, 1912, from Aspid- 

 iotus perniciosus Comst. at Amherst, Mass. Specimens were 

 sent to Dr. L. O. Howard, who returned them with the state- 

 ment that they were a new species of Prospaltella and could 

 safely be described as such. Acting on this advice the following 

 descriptions of male and female have been prepared, under the 

 supervision of Dr. H. T. Fernald. 



This new species can be inserted in Dr. Howard's key to the 

 species of Prospaltella (Ann. Ent. Soc. Am., I, 281, 1908), by 

 adding a fourth alternative to section five as follows: "Wings 



with a broad dusky band below marginal vein, 6," 



and by adding to section six the alternative, "Wings with a 

 broad dusky band below marginal vein: abdomen nearly 

 black" which would lead to this species. 



Prospaltella perniciosi n. sp. 



Female: Length, 0.61 mm.; expanse, 1.73 mm.; greatest width of 

 fore-wing, 0.25 mm. General color of living specimens black with the 

 meso-scutellum showing as a prominent light dot. In zylol-balsam 

 mounts the head and central portions of the thorax are light brown. 

 Head: vertex yellowish brown; occiput dark; ocelli dark; eyes black 

 and hairy, the hairs about as long as the diameter of a facet. Antenna: 

 brownish yellow; bulb twice as long as wide, cylindrical and nearly 

 hyaline ; scape nearly five times as long as wide, nearly hyaline at each end, 

 more or less cylindrical to spindle shaped; pedicle slightly longer than 

 wide, narrow at its base, widest well toward its tip, its inner side much 

 farther from the axis of the antenna than its outer side; first funicle 

 segment connected with pedicle by a narrow somewhat elongate stalk, 

 which is quite hyaline; this segment a trifle more than half the length 

 of the next and irregular in outline; second and third segments of the 

 funicle nearly equal in size and nearly cylindrical ; segments of the club 

 more closely articulated to each other than to the funicle or than are 

 the segments of the funicle to each other; club slightly longer than 

 funicle; first two segments about equal in length, their greatest diameter 

 being at their outer ends; terminal segment elongate, triangular in 

 outline, and longer than either of the other segments, bluntly pointed 

 at tip; all segments of antenna bearing scattered hairs. 



* Contribution from the Entomological Laboratory, Massachusetts Agri- 

 cultural College. 



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