REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST 1918 T29 
shorter than the rounded ventral plate. The females of some species 
have hyaline wings and Kieffer is unable to distinguish them from 
those of Clinodiplosis, except by the reddish color of the abdomen and 
the fuscous spot at its base. The subgenus Coprodiplosis Kieff. 
may be separated from the typical Lestodiplosis by the hyaline wings. 
The larvae, according to Kieffer, are zoophagous, subsisting upon the 
larvae of Cecidomyiids, Mycetophilids and Xylophagids. He has 
observed them living upon the larvae of Rhopalomyia 
tanaceticola. This record of zoophagous habits is confirmed 
by the rearings of American species, since members of this genus 
were obtained from a wide variety of galls and the larvae evidently 
subsisted upon Itonids, other small insects or acarids. See figures 
23, 24 for the general characteristics of these larvae. 
The genus, as recognized by us, is easily separated from all other 
Itonids by the very characteristic triangular lobe at the base of the 
slender basal clasp segment. The dorsal plate is usually short and 
rather deeply and triangularly emarginate, the lobes being narrow, 

Fig. 24 Lestodiplosis species, dorsal view of posterior segments of larva (enlarged, 
original) 
parallel and broadly rounded, while the ventral plate is long, rather 
broad and narrowly rounded apically. Species referable to this 
group are mostly small, ranging from .75 to about 2 mm in length, 
usually yellowish or reddish, though a few are brownish. 
Species of this genus are very frequently reared from various galls 
and are probably zoophagous. This is undoubtedly true ofil 
grassator Fyles, L. peruviana Felt! and a number of 
other species, though it will be observed by referring to the records, 
that a considerable number of species have been reared from flowers 
1Ent. News, 22:10-II, 1911. 
