4^4 



1 have referred to the facts that a Gonatopus is said to have 

 been bred from the beetle Ptinns fur, a statement so remark- 

 able, as to need verification. Dr. Kieffer in the paper I have 

 cited tells us that this so-called Gonatopus probably belongs to 

 the genus Gcphalonoinia of the Bethylidae. He also states that 

 the genus MysfropJiorus has chelate tarsi in the female, Foerster 

 'having mistaken his specimens for this sex, when really they 

 were males. In my synopsis of genera in Pt. i, p. 33 of this 

 Bulletin Mystrophorus will therefore have to be removed from 

 the neighborhood of Antcon, which will remain as the sole rep- 

 resentative of that section of Dryinidae, of which the species 

 hav-e simple front legs in both sexes. 



I have still left undescribed the greater number of male 

 Dryinidae obtained by us. It might be supposed that as nearly 

 all our male specimens were bred, there would be no difificulty 

 in determining the species to which these belong. This, how- 

 ever, is by no means the case, for most of the graminivorous 

 Delphacids and Jassids, from which these parasites are obtained, 

 are liable to be attacked by two or three different species, and 

 as males and females of the parasites are not reared from a sin- 

 gle individual hopper, but only one or other sex, the difficulty 

 of pairing the sexes is hardly lessened by the fact that the speci- 

 mens are bred. The matter is really quite complicated, for a 

 Dryinid sometimes attacks many species of leaf-hoppers, and a 

 given leaf-hopper may be attacked by a number of distinct 

 specie^s of these parasites, even when all are collected in the 

 self-same locality. Occasionally even an individual hopper is 

 attacked by two, or even three, species of Dryinid parasites, 

 these usually belonging to at least two genera. It is quite com- 

 mon also to obtain Stylopid and Dryinid parasites from a sin- 

 gle specimen of the host, and Pipiincuhis is sometimes associat- 

 ed with one or other of these, but usually with the latter. 



'Nearly all these difficult miales belong to what was once call- 

 ed the genus Laheo. Ashmead shrewdly conjectured that Laheo 

 was the male of Gonatopus, (scnsu lat.) a conjecture partially cor- 

 rect. In Labco, however, he included male Dryinus, as well as 

 Gonatopus, although the latter are at once distinguished by their 

 short maxillary palpi, etc., etc. As colonies of Gonatopus and 

 its allies can easily be raised in confinement, there is no doubt 

 but that the sexes will ultimately be correctly associated and 

 the generic characters of the males properly established. In my 

 opinion the structure of the palpi, the condition of the parap- 

 sides of the mesonotum. and the antennal joints, will be of most 

 use for this purpose. Such, however, is rather the work of a 



