NOTES ON THE BIOLOGY OF PARAPHELINUS 

 SPECIOSISSIMUS GIRAULT. 



By W. R. McCoNNELL, 



Scientific Assistant, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Entomology, 

 Cereal and Forage Insect Investigations. 



It is well known that the Chalcidoids of the Tribe Aphelinini 

 are among the most important parasites of Scale Insects, par- 

 ticularly of the DiaspincB, and that they also parasitize AphididcB 

 and Aleyrodidce. The only exceptions appear to belong to the 

 genus Paraphelinus, erected by Perkins in 1906 (Bull. 1, part 8, 

 Report of Work of the Experiment Station of the Hawaiian 

 Sugar Planter's Association, 1906, p. 264) to contain his P. 

 xiphidii. In describing the species P. tomaspinis, Dr. Howard 

 has given a compact summary of the facts known regarding the 

 biology of this genus (Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash., XVI, 1914, pp. 

 81-82), which is as follows: 



"Perkins's P. xiphidii was reared from the eggs of Xiphidium 

 varipenne Swezey. The only other species so far discovered, 

 viz.: P. speciosissimus Girault (Journ. N. Y. Ent. Soc, 1911, p. 

 181) and P. australiensis Girault (Archiv fur Naturgeschichte, 

 1913, pp. 74-75, Ab. A. 6 heft), were both described from single 

 captured specimens, so that their host relations are unknown. 

 The receipt of the new species here described from Mr. P. L. 

 Guppy, of Trinidad, who reared it from the eggs of the sugar 

 cane leaf-hopper, Tomaspis varia, makes it probable that all 

 species of this interesting genus are parasites in the eggs of 

 Orthoptera and Homoptera that are inserted in twigs or canes. 

 This would be an unique feature in Aphelinine biology (the 

 other forms all ovipositing only in Coccidae, Aphididse and Aley- 

 rodidas) were it not for the old disputed species Agonioneunis 

 locustarum Giraud (placed in Aphelinus by Dalla Torre) and 

 which was described by Dr. J. Giraud in his Memoir on the 

 insects which live upon the common rose (Verh. d. Zool.-Bot. 

 ges. Wien., Vol. 18, 1863, pp. 1278-1279) and which he reared 

 from the eggs of Xiphidium fuscum F. It seems to me quite 

 possible that in the old A. locustarum we may have another 

 species of Paraphelinus. There is nothing in the original descrip- 

 tion which would seriously deny this guess, except the absence 



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