BY T. HARVEY JOHNSTON AND M. J. BANCROFT. 



23 



Pupse of various muscids were collected and examined 

 •diirina: the summer in order to ascertain the percentage 

 infection. 



In addition to these four fhes, others were found to 

 T)e hable to l)ecome parasitised and destroyed by Spalangia, 

 viz., Musca hilli Jnstn. and Bancr. ; Stomoxys calcitrans ; 

 and certain bloA\ilies (Pycnosoma rufifacies, P. raripes and 

 Sarcophaga misera). ^^'e have not 3-et experimented with 

 other local bloA\"flies {Lucilia sericata, Neopolleyiia stygia, 

 AnasiellorJnna augur, CalUplwra spp. Sarcophaga spp., 

 Ophyra, etc.), but there can be little doubt but that the 

 parasite is able to attack them as M^ell as local species of 

 Fannia, Pyrellia and Pseudopyrellia* The fruit fly, 

 Tephritis tryoni, did not prove a suitable host in the one 

 experiment carried out bj' us. 



As far as we have been able to ascertain this constitutes 

 the first record of S. viuscidarum from a localit}' outside 

 the United States. Froggatt and Froggatt (1917, p. 32-3), 

 gave a brief description and figures of an unidentified 

 parasite obtained from a blowfly (.'' Ophyra nigra). Though 

 the figures do not quite agree with those of our specimens 

 they probably refer to S. muscidarnm. In 1918 (p. 18) these 

 authors referred to the species having been bred from pupse 

 of Musca domestica, near Hay, N.S.W. 



* We have since found that Spalangia will parasitise N. stygia; A> 

 Augur; Calliphora incisurali:^ (so named in Mr. H. Tryon's repo ts, but 

 Dr. E. W. Ferguson informs us that it is known as Pycnosoma dux in 

 Sydney); arid the two common siJecies of Sarcophaya found in Brisbane, 

 •one being apparenth- S- frontalis while the otlier is a large golden-fa««d 

 «pecies with an elongate abdomen. 



