ART. 3 SOME NEW CHAIiCID-FLIES TIMBERLAKE 9 



PSEUDORHOPUS, new genus 

 Rhopus Ma YE, 1875 (excluding male), Verb, zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, vol. 25, p. 

 690.— GiRAULT, 1915, Journ. New York Ent. See., vol. 23, p. 169.— Min?CET, 1921, 

 Fauna Iberica, Himen., Fam. Encertidos, p. 83, figs. 8-10. 



Pseudorhopus is a new name for Rhopus of authors, not Forster, 

 and has for its type Encyrtus testaceus Ratzeburg. Mercet has cited 

 testaceus as the type of Rhopus Forster, but this can not be, as 

 Forster cited Encyrtus piso Walker as the tj^^pe. Mayr synonymized 

 piso with testaceus with some doubt, as he had not seen the type of 

 piso, and I am now able to show with considerable certainty that 

 the males which he placed with testaceus, including the specimen of 

 piso received from Walker, have nothing to do with testaceus. This 

 conclusion is based on the study of a fine series of a closely related 

 North American species, including both sexes, the males being very 

 similar to the females except in the primary sexual characters, and 

 like them in having a five- jointed funicle. The male of this species 

 (described below as hartniani) is so exceedingly like the female that 

 I believe it is very likely that Mayr overlooked the true male of 

 testaceus in the large series of specimens reared from Physokertnes 

 piceae Schrank, which he thought were all females. 



As the genus Pseudorhopus has the characters assigned to Rhopus 

 by Mayr, and has been further elucidated by Girault and Mercet, 

 it does not need to be redescribed here. The broad edentate mandi- 

 bles, the shore antennae with the five-jointed funicle and entire 

 club, the short submarginal vein, punctiform marginal vein, short 

 stigmal and postmarginal veins, and the short tarsal joints are all 

 peculiar characteristics by reason of which the genus can hardly 

 be mistaken. Although the mandibles are similar to those of 

 Encyrtus, I do not believe that Pseudorhopus is closely allied thereto. 

 Mercet has suggested its affinity to Ai^henophagus Aurivillius, and 

 it is perhaps the nearest approach to that isolated genus of all the 

 Encyrtinae. 



Rhopus itself was described by Forster in rather negative terms, 

 the only positive characters given being the gradual transition of the 

 frontovertex into the face (not separated by a sharp angulation), 

 the strongly depressed body and nonmetallic coloration. Nothing 

 is said about the antennae having a five- jointed funicle, and the 

 genus is placed with others having the normal number of joints. 

 The type species piso was described by Walker as having the body 

 depressed; the head small, transverse, and very short, the antennae 

 slender, filiform, pilose, almost as long as the body, the funicle six- 

 jointed, the joints long and linear, the club fusiform and nearly 

 twice as long as the preceding joint; the wings long, narrow, and 

 with a short marginal fringe. Judging from these characters it 

 seems to me that Rhopus is very close to Xanthoencyrtus Ashmead 

 and probably the same. 

 81497—26 2 



