114 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



ON A NEW SPECIES OF PHYTOPHAGOUS EURY- 

 TOMA (CHALCIDIDZE) FROM NEW ZEALAND. 



By p. Cameron. 



While the vast majority of the very extensive family of the 

 Chalcididfe are undoubtedly parasitic on other insects, it is now 

 well known that at least three of the tribes — the Agaonidae (Fig- 

 insects), the Torymidfe, represented by the Idarninse (which are 

 connected in some way with the Fig-Chalcids, probably as In- 

 quilines), the Toryminae, Syntomaspis and Megasiigmiis, and the 

 family Eurytomidte, two of whose tdbes, the Isosmini and the 

 Eurytomini — contain plant-feeding species. Not only do those 

 Chalcid groups contain plant-feeders, but a few of them are 

 injurious to the plants on which they feed. So far as I know, 

 all the plant-feeding Chalcids feed in the seeds, except the 

 Isosmini, which form galls on the stems of grasses, and the 

 American genus Eiinjtomacharis, which also makes galls in the 

 stems of the food-plant. At least four of these phytophagous 

 Chalcids must be ranked among injurious insects. The damage 

 done by the American "Joint-worm " to wheat is too well known. 

 Syntomaspis dniparnm, Boh., has proved injurious to apples by 

 devouring the seeds, both in Europe and in the United States. 

 Megastigmus spermatrophus, Wachtl (said to be really a native of 

 the Western United States), has proved very destructive to the 

 Douglas -fir in the North of Scotland. I once found the larvte of 

 M. aculeatus, Swederus, in Cheshire, in some quantity in the 

 hips of a garden rose, there being no dipterous or other larvae 

 present. This species is now found in the United States, and 

 it also has been reared from rose-seed received from China 

 [cf. C. R. Crosby, Bull. Cornell Univ. Agric. Exper. Station, 

 Bull. 265, p. 379).* In North America the Eurytomid, Evoxy- 

 soma litis, Saunders, badly infests the seeds of the vine. Briico- 

 pliagiis/unehris, How., in North America is certainly an enemy 

 of the clover and alfalfa by feeding on their seeds. 



It would be interesting to know if all the species of Mega- 

 stigmus are vegetable-feeders. M. pictus, Foer. (a British 

 species), has been reared from the seeds of the rose, and long 

 ago Mr. Parhtt (Zool. xv. 1857, p. 5543) reared M. pinus, Parf., 

 from the seeds of the pine. M. brevicaudis, Eatz., has been 

 bred from the seeds of the Ptowan {Sorbus or Pyrus aucaparia). 

 It can hardly be that all species of Megastigmus are plant- 

 feeders, unless we are to suppose that they live as Inquilines, 

 like Synergus, in the galls made by other insects. Thus Mayr 

 (Verb. z.-b. Wien, xxv. 135) gives a list of nineteen species 



'-'•'• In this paper Mr. Crosby gives a good review of the seed-infesting flies 

 with much new matter. 



