1909] GIRAULT —OLIGOSITA AMERICANA 107 
Girault, 1907) was based on error, the eggs of the jassid being found in the stems of 
Elymus along with the Isosoma larvae. Mr. Webster was kind enough to allow me 
to incorporate herewith the substance of a note which he had drawn up for publi- 
cation with the view of rectifying matters. In this note, he states in part: 
“In the spring of 1905 I reared this same species from jassid eggs deposited 
within the stems of Elymus found near Urbana, Illinois, on April 1, 1905. The 
jassid eggs were found while splitting stems of Elymus for larvae of Isosoma. 'The 
stems containing the jassid eggs was placed in a vial for further developments and on 
May 27th, 1905, the parasites emerged in abundance. Nearly every egg was parasi- 
tized. ‘ | 
Specimens were sent to Washington and the species was determined as Oligosita 
americana Ashmead MS. ‘The jassid eggs were sent to Professor Herbert Osborn 
who replied that the eggs‘looked very much like those of Dorycephalus platyrhynchus 
Osborn, and if occurring in Elymus I should think probably that species.’ Accord- 
ing to Dr. Ashmead, another species of this genus is also parasitic on jassid eggs. 
From this, it would appear that Oligosita americana is to be regarded as a parasite 
- of Jassid eggs rather than-on those of the genus Isosoma.” 
As a matter of general principle, I am greatly opposed to accepting names of 
species proposed in a manner similar to this, for they are merely nomina nuda; I 
therefore accept this name under protest and use it as a matter of expediency only, 
— tending to avoid confusion — on account of the fact that it has slipped inadver- 
tently into the literature. The habit which prevails in Entomology of using manu- 
. script names is a bad one; they are very liable to become obstructions, hence should 
be avoided. The usage seems to have been most prevalent in connection with the 
parasitic Hymenoptera, and it is not a difficult matter to point to inany examples 
now existing in the literature, where the names alone exist, the description of the 
species having been subsequently neglected, or entirely overlooked. 
Family TRICHOGRAMMIDAE. 
Subfamily OLIGOSITINAE. 
Genus Oligosita Haliday (Walker). 
Oligosita americana Ashmead species nova. 
Webster, 1903a, p. 92. 
Idem, 19038, pp. 22, 33. 
Girault, 1907, p. 32. 
