172 REVISTA CHILENA DE HISTORIA NATURAL 



A NEW GENUS 



OF 



APHELININAE FROM CHILI 



BY 



L. 0. HOWARD 



Entomologist, Depart, of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 

 Since the publication of the writer's n Revision of the Apheli- 

 ninae of North American (Bulletin 1; Technical Series, U. S. 

 Deqartment of Agriculture, Division of Entomology, 1895), the 

 discovery of new forms, and especially of new genera, has been 

 of very infrenquent ocurrence. Species have been received from 

 all parts of the world, owing to the extraordinary and world-wide 

 development of interest in scale insects, which are the principal 

 hosts of the Aphelininae, yet nearly all of the forms thus received 

 have been species already described, which have been caried with 

 their hosts upon live plants to many diferent regions. It is, 

 therefore, interesting to discover a new genus, even from a 

 country like Chile, whose parasitic Hymenoptera are are so little 

 known. A most interesting feature of the discovery is that the 

 new genus was reared from Asjñdiotus hederae (nerii) together 

 w^ith teree of the cosmopolitan forms, namely, Aspidiotifjhagus 

 citrinus (Craw); Goccophagths irmnacidatus, How., and Prospalta 

 aurantii, How. The writer is indebted to Mr. Edwyn C. Reed, of 

 Rancagua, Chile, for this sending, as well as for nany other 

 favours. 



APHYTIS ~ new Genus. 



Female. — Resembles Aphelinus in the oblique hairless line 

 extendig from the stigmal vein transversely to base of wing. It 

 differs principally from Aphelinus in the antennae, which are 

 only 5 -jointed, the first ring-joint apparently being absent. The 

 pedicel is nearly cylindrical; the first funicle joint cubical; the 

 second funicle joint long -oval, wider than the first, andmore 

 than twice as long; club long, elliptical, longer than pedicel 

 and funicle together. The mesonotal sclerites resemble those of 

 Aphelinus, but the opositor is esserted to abbout | the length of 

 the abdomen, as with Centrodora; hind thighs somewhat swollen; 

 stigmal vein is short and knobbed and the post marginal vein is 

 absent; the mandibles are tridentate; the ocelli large and placed 

 in the form of an oblique angled triangle. 



Aphytis chilensis, n. sp. 



Female. — Length to tip of ovipositor i?.P^™™-; expanse 1.8'"''"'-; 

 gratest ^uidth of fore wing O.IS'"'''"". General color pale yellow, 

 luith slight dushy tinge on the dorsum of the tfiorax; the lateral 

 margins of the abdominal segments lüith dusky transverse 



