AUSTRALIAN HYMENOPTERA CHALCIDOIDEA, VII.—GIRAULT. 67 
I have frequently mistaken members of this group for true encyrtids. Several genera 
in the Taneostigmine resemble genera in this group very much and there are seemingly inter- 
grading forms. In the cases of species of Aphelinus, Coccophagus and Physcus I have been 
puzzled in regard to which group they should be classed. The Aphelinine frequently have the 
mesopleurum entire, the antenne are inserted below the middle of the face, the middle tibial 
‘spur is frequently elongate (but usually slender), the mandibles are 2- or 3-dentate, the form 
short and compact and the tarsi usually 5-jointed. Four-jointed tarsi are not exceptional in 
the Encyrtide. The wings here are frequently with an oblique hairless line, ring-joints are 
usually absent, jumping is usual and the hosts are coccids. Moreover, the variety of form 
and markings is great. 
These characters certainly approach very closely those of the Encyrtide. 
A minute, wingless male of the Aphelinini, with antennze about as in Hretmocerus, is 
native to the jungle of North Queensland. 
SUBFAMILY SIGNIPHORIN Ai. 
GENUS SIGNIPHORA Ashmead. 
1. SIGNIPHORA AUSTRALIENSIS Ashmead. Female; male. 
I give the recent review of this species in my A Systematic Monograph of the Chaleidoid 
Hymenoptera of the Subfamily Signiphorine (Girault, 1913). 
‘* Signiphora australiensis Ashmead, 1900, pp. 409, 410. 
The original description of this species is exactly as follows: 
Female.—Length, 0.60 mm. A®neous black, the mesonotum with a bronzy tinge, the 
‘scutellum with a slight bluish tinge; legs black, a spot on knees and tarsi white or yellowish 
white, the anterior tibie yellowish beneath; wings fuscous with a hyaline band across the disk 
from apex of the marginal vein. 
Type.—Cat. No. 4771, U.S.N.M. 
Habitat.—Australia (Albert Koebele, collector). 
Host.—Rhynch.: Sp. not identified. 
By studying the types I am enabled to offer the following additional descriptive details: 
Like nigra but differing colorationally in that the head and thorax are metallic to some extent, 
the vertex and mesonotum distinctly metallic green (but not in balsam mounts), the latter 
finely transversely lined; body finely polygonally sculptured, including the abdomen (the 
sceulpturing not distinct in balsam mounts); the fore wings differ as described—they are 
embrowned throughout, but somewhat distad of the middle there is a broad clear band, 
suberescentic in shape and touching the costal margin at the apex of the stigmal vein. This 
area is broader at the caudal margin than at the cephalic one, barely reaching the latter; 
the stigmal vein differs in that it is like a short conical prolongation bending off slightly from 
the marginal; thus it is short and much broader at its point of origin than is the case with 
that of nigra. Like nigra, there is also a clear area proximad, but this is somewhat more 
‘prominent with this species. (See beyond.) The male is like the female. 
The species has not been mentioned again in the literature; it is variable as will be 
‘shown later. 
I have studied the following specimens: The tag-mounted types now remounted in 
xylol-balsam; these were and are labeled ‘ Signiphora australiensis Ashmead, female. Type 
No. 4771, U.S.N.M. Australia. Koebele, 12.’ The type consists of three females. Also a 
‘slide from the collections of the United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, District 
of Columbia, bearing 2 males and 12 females and labeled ‘ 1849. Acanthococcid on Eucalyptus. 
Gosford, N.S.W., Noy. 1899. A. Koebele.’ These specimens varied considerably in the 
fumation of the fore wing and in the length of the marginal fringes. In all of them the 
latter were distinctly shorter than in the type specimens, while the majority of the specimens 
