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VIII. Notes u'pon some, remarhaUe parasitic insects from 

 North Queensland. By F. P. Dodd, F.E.S. ; with 

 an Airpeiulix containing descriptions of Neio 

 Species, ly Colonel Charles T. Bixgham, 

 F.Z.S., and Dr. Benno Wandolleck. 



[Read March 7th, 1906.] 



Hymexoptera PAEASITICA, 



[The material upon which the following interesting observ- 

 ations have been made has been kindly placed in my 

 hands by the author, with the desire that I should make 

 it available for the use of naturalists. Inasmuch as it 

 mainly bears upon those bionomic questions which are so 

 much studied at Oxford, the great majority of the 

 specimens have been placed in the Hope Department ; but 

 wherever possible, co-types of the new species have been 

 deposited in the British Museum of Natural History. The 

 type of the interesting Cyrtid fly, Ogcodcs doddi, has been 

 added to Dr. Wandolleck's famous collection of this group 

 at Dresden. 



Mr, Dodd is to be congratulated upon these carefully- 

 recorded observations throwing so much new light upon 

 many of the North Australian Hymenoptera Parasitica. 

 The hosts of the extraordinary Chalcid genus ScMzaspidea 

 have been hitherto unknown ; we here find that >S'. doddi is 

 parasitic upon ants. In other cases, such as the Chalcidid 

 genus RhipiimUus and the Cyrtid fly, the general group to 

 which the host belongs is already known, but Mr. Dodd 

 furnishes us wath exact data of the utmost value and interest. 

 Many observations here recorded show a remarkable and 

 long-persistent vitality in larv£B attacked by Braconid 

 parasites. It is probable that in hot latitudes, where a 

 dead insect would quickly dry up and in other ways 

 deteriorate as food, the attacks of parasites have been 

 specially adapted to prolong the victim's life to its very 

 utmost. The adaptation of course always exists, but here 

 we probably see it at its highest level. 



It is unnecessary to specify any localities, inasmuch as 

 TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOXI). 1906. — PART L (MAY) 



