418 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. L1885. 



Eupelmus allynii (French). 

 [Plate XXI, figs. 3 and 4.] 



SYNONYMY. 



Isosoma allynii French. Canadian Entomologist, vol. xiv, p. 9. (January, 1882.) 

 Eupelmus allynii (French). Riley, American Naturalist, vol. xvi, p. 247. (March^ 



1882. ) 



This species was originally published by Prof. G. H. French as a 

 wheat depredator of the genus Isosoma. Specimens which he sent me^ 

 however, soon after his publication of the species, showed that it be- 

 longed to Eupelmus and not to Isosoma, and that, therefore, it was a 

 parasite and not a plant-feeder. The question at once arose : " Upon 

 what is it parasitic °? " Professor French answered this question as fol- 

 lows : " The genus Eupelmus is parasitic as far as known, and I presume 

 E. allynii is no exception. I may say that I have obtained another 

 specimen of this species from a gall in a stalk, produced evidently by 

 the regular joint- worm [Isosoma liordii). From this and from the fact 

 that my specimens were obtained from burrows made in the wheat- 

 stalks by this new Isosoma, it seems to me that we have here a parasite 

 on the real wheat-stalk worm. * * * jt should be borne in mind, 

 also, that the Eupelmus is a i^robable destroyer of the real wheat 

 enemy.* In the annual report of the U. S. Entomologist for 1881-'82, 

 I wrote (p. ISO) : "Although we cannot yet say with certainty that 

 Eupelmus allynii is parasitic upon our wheat Isosoma, yet, considering 

 the circumstances under which it was obtained, this seems probable.'^ 

 Prof. S. A. Forbes also remarks : " Professor French found Eupelmus 

 allynii also in the straws, thus confirming the hypothesis of its para- 

 sitism on Isosoma." t It is thus rendered quite certain that Eupelmus 

 allynii is parasitic on Isosoma, and I was able to confirm the evidence 

 quoted by subsequently breeding the parasite from Isosoma hordii re- 

 ceived from Mr. E. C. Brooke, of Cuckoo, Louisa County, Virginia, and 

 but a few days later a large series was raised from straw containing 

 only Isosoma tritici, received from F. M. Webster, Oxford, Ind. There 

 can, therefore, be no question but that the species is parasitic upon both 

 Isosoma liordii and /. tritici. 



While, therefore, there cau be no doubt about the real parasitism on 



'Isosoma there is just as little doubt as to its being parasitic on the 



Hessian Fly ; for I find that two specimens (both females) were bred 



by me from coarctate larvae of the Hessian Fly on July 18, 1876, at 



Saint Louis, Mo., the straw having been received from the interior of 



* Eleventh Report of the State Entomologist on the Noxious and Beneficial Insects 

 of the State of Illinois. By Cyrus Thomas, Ph. D., Springfield, 1882, p. 81, foot note. 



t Thirteenth Report of the State Entomologist on the Noxious and Beneficial Insects 

 of the State of Illinois. S. A. Forbes, Springfield, 111., April, 1884, p. 34. 



