MEGASTIGMUS SPERMOTROPHUS, WACHTL. 53 
in proportion. Again, Megastigmus spermotrophus belongs to a 
family of Hymenopterous insects, the Chalcididae, the larve of 
which, in the great majority of cases, are not feeders on plants, 
but are parasitic on other insects. Further, while it is admitted 
that some species of Chalcids are feeders on plants (phytophagic), 
it has been denied by such an excellent authority as Dr L. O. 
Howard, of the United States, that species of the genus 
Megastigmus are phytophagic in habit. We believe that the 
record of this infestation at Durris should go far, in view of 
previous evidence, to settle the controversy. 
This insect, Megastigmus spermotrophus, was first received by 
Wachtl, of Vienna, in 1893, and was described by him as a new 
species. In the spring of 1893 Wachtl got some specimens of 
Megastigmus insects that had issued from the seeds of the 
Douglas fir. From these specimens Wachtl described the male 
and female of the species, which description I now give, in 
translation, from Wachtl’s paper.! 
“The female is loam-yellow ; the vertex of the head and the 
forehead to the base of the antennz are red-brown; the central 
part of the face (epistome), the inner edges of the eyes and the 
palpi, yellow ; the ocelli red-brown, each edged with black and 
sometimes connected with one another by means of black lines ; 
never, however, is the entire inner surface of the ocellar-triangle 
dark coloured ; the eyes during life are shining coral red, after 
death red-brown; antennz blackish-brown, the scape, and the 
part between the scape and the flagellum, reddish-yellow; the 
pronotum with a more or less broad yellow band at the hind 
edge; the scutum of the mesonotum generally red-brown; the 
outer side of the shoulders and the furrows of the parrapsides? 
yellow ; the surroundings of the bases of the wings to a slight 
extent black; the diaphanous wings finely black-haired; the 
knob or club of the ramus-stigmaticus* longer than broad, 
1 Zin neuer Megastigmus als Samenverwiister von Pseudotsuga Douglastz, 
Carr., Wiener Entomol. Zeitung, 1893. 
2The scutum or disc of the metathorax is, in the order Hymenoptera, 
divided into three parts by longitudinal sutures or furrows. The name 
parrapsides is applied to the side parts separated from each other by the 
middle portion.—R. S, M. 
3’ The ramus-stigmaticus is the small branch (see Figure) which is given 
off from the part of the vein that runs along the front edge of the fore-wing. 
Its varying size and shape in different species are made use of in classification. 
—R.S.M. 
