MEGASTIGMUS SPERMOTROPHUS, WACHTL. 63 
Wachtl, after an examination of these dead specimens, obtained 
a number of Douglas fir seeds, and found them infested with a 
larva. The seeds showed no trace of any other inhabitant save 
the Chalcid larva. Wachtl bred out many adults of both sexes, 
and described the species under the name of Megastigmus spermo- 
trophus. The seeds from which the specimens were obtained 
had been imported from the American home of the Douglas. 
Wachtl, by publishing his observations, definitely stating the 
Megastigmus larva to be the seed destroyer, obtained priority 
as regards the discovery of a A/egastigmus destructive to conifers. 
Several other observers, however, previous to 1903, had noticed 
Chalcid larvz in, or bred out adults from, the seeds of different 
comfers, but their observations remained unpublished, or they 
took the old view that the A/egastigmus was parasitic on the real 
enemy of the seed, whatever it might be. The late Professor 
Nitsche, of Tharandt, had in his possession a letter written to 
his colleague, Professor Judeich, in 1887, by Mr H. Borriés, 
of Copenhagen, stating that there had been a marked destruction 
of the seeds of the silver fir (Adies pectinata) at Bornholm, in 
Denmark, and that from the seeds Borriés had bred out many 
Megastigmus strobilobius, Ratz. Long before this, Ratzeburg, in 
Germany, had obtained from the seeds of the spruce (Picea 
excelsa) a Megastigmus, but disbelieving in the plant-eating habit 
of Megastigmus, he stated that this larva from the spruce was 
probably parasitic on Grapholitha strobilella, a caterpillar enemy 
of spruce cones. 
Borriés had also written to Riley, in America, a letter relating 
to the appearance of Megastigmus adults from the seeds of 
different conifers. In this letter to Riley, Borriés writes:! “ During 
the year 1886 and 1887, the seeds of Ades pectinata, in the 
forests of Denmark, were destroyed so thoroughly that not a 
single healthy seed could be found. Cones which were sent to 
me for examination did not show anything peculiar externally, 
but the apparently healthy seeds contained each a small larva 
of the subfamily Zorymide. From two tons of cones, kept in 
cages, only a single species of Torymid developed from this 
larva in spring 1888, viz., Megastigmus strobilobius, Ratz., which 
had been entirely lost sight of since Ratzeburg’s time.” 
Borries had also had occasion to procure the seeds of a 
1“*Ts Megastigmus Phytophagic?” by C. V. Riley, Proc. Ent. Soc., 
‘Washington, vol. ii., No. 4, 1893. 
