A NEW CHALCID-FLY PARASITIC ON THE AUSTRALIAN 



BULL-DOG ANT.* 



By Charles T. Brues. 



Several decades ago, Professor August Forelf found in 

 cocoons of the large Australian bull-dog ant, Myrmecia forficata 

 Fabr., two specimens of a fine Eucharid. He recognized them 

 as parasites of the ant larvae and sent them to the English 

 hymenopterist, Peter Cameron, who described them as Eucharis 

 myrmicicB.X This was the first record of a Eucharid parasite 

 of an ant, although several other genera have been reared 

 subsequently from other ants and it seems likely that all of the 

 Eucharidae are ant-parasites. 



Very recently Dr. R. J. Tillyard, of Hornsby, New South 

 Wales, bred from a cocoon of Myrmecia gidosa another Eucharid 

 which he sent to Prof. W. M. Wheeler, who has published 

 accounts of the habits of Orasema and several other genera. § 



The species reared by Dr. Tillyard is quite distinct from 

 Eucharis myrmicicB, although I suspect that both may belong 

 to the same genus. Cameron's species is undoubtedly not an 

 Eucharis as that genus is at present restricted and it may 

 perhaps be a Psilogaster to which I believe the new species is 

 referable. Psilogaster was first proposed for an Egyptian 

 species by Blanchard and recently another one from Abyssinia 

 has been more carefully described and figured by Reichen- 

 sperger"*" as P. fraudulentus . In addition to these. Dr. Wm. M. 

 Mann tells me that he has a new species which he hopes soon 

 to describe, taken by him in the Solomon Islands. The 

 Abyssinian form occurs with Pheidole megacephala. Both of 

 the African species have 11-jointed antennas as does a Tasmanian 

 Eucharid described by Walker as Psilogaster pallipes. Recently 

 Girault has added one from Australia with 10-jointed antennas, 

 and has proposed the genus Parapsilogaster for another with 

 12-jointed antennae. Since it is a difficult matter to say 



* Contribution from the Entomological Laboratory of the Bussey Institution, 

 Harvard University, No. 152. 



t Am. Soc. Ent. Belgique, Vol. 20, p. 8. (1890). 



J Mem. & Proc. Manchester Lit. & Philos. Soc, Vol. 4, p. 187. (1891). 



§ Bull. American Mus. Nat. Hist., Vol. 23, pp. 1-93 (1907). 



+ Zool. Jahrb. Abth. f. Syst., Vol. 53, pp. 185-218. (1913). 



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