MEGASTIGMUS SPERMOTROPHUS, WACH'?L, 61 
Trail in Scotland, and Ritsema Bos in Holland, had re- 
corded in 1870 and 1871 Zurytoma (which Howard says should 
be named Jsosoma) longipennis as the cause of galls on Sea Marram 
or Mat Grass (Ammophila arundinacea). 
In 1880 Lindeman! described a species of /sosoma which had, 
over a period of five years, been harmful to rye. 
Westwood, in 1881,? recorded an instance of Chalcid larve 
causing damage to the buds of a specimen of Cattleya by boring 
into these and destroying the heart of the shoot. 
Again, in 1883, Westwood claimed Zurytoma taprobanica as a 
gall-maker on /icus, but Howard dissented, believing it to be 
really parasitic in habit. 
Amongst the subfamily Zorymide, the subfamily to which the 
genus Megastigmus belongs, are some of the fig-insects well 
known in fig-caprification. 
Tue GENUS MEGASTIGMUS. 
A controversy, similar to the one that existed with regard to 
the food-habits of /sosoma species, exists as regards some of the 
Megastigmus species. The genus Megastigmus, of the subfamily 
Torymide, is characterised by this, that in both sexes the tiny 
vein, which is given off as a branch from the part of the vein that 
runs along the front edge of the forewing, is very short, and ends 
in a marked knob or club. The females, too, have a long 
ovipositor. 
There seems to be no doubt that certain of the Mega- 
stigmus species are parasitic on insects. Mayr,’? for example, 
mentions Megastigmus species that are parasitic on the larve of 
numerous Cynipid galls and on species of caterpillars of 
Lepidoptera. Ashmead‘ names AMegastigmus species taken from 
Cynipid galls and from a Cecidomyid gall. There is a consider- 
able body of evidence, however, in favour of the phytophagic 
habit of several species. Wachtl® obtained from rose-hips a 
number of Megastigmus collaris, Brh., and Megastigmus pictus, 
1 Bulletin de la Société Imperiale des Naturalistes de Moscow, 1880. 
2 Gardeners’ Chronicle, vol. xvi. p. 567. 
° Die Europaischen Torymiden, 1874, Mayr. 
4°* Studies of North American Chalcididz,” Ashmead, 77. Am. Ent. Soc., 
vol. xiv., 1887. 
5 Wiener Entom. Zeitung, iii., 1884, pp. 38 and 214. 
