1026] rEOCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD ENTOMOLOGIC.iL MEETING 



80.— ON THE BOLLWORM PARASITE DESCRIBED AS RHOGAS 

 LEFROYI BY DUDGEON AND GOUGH. 



By Pbofessok Charles T. Brues {Harvard University). 



In tlie Agricultural Journal of Egypt for 1914 (Vol. 3, part 2, pp. 108- 

 110) Dudgeon and Gough described two Braconid parasites of the 

 Egyptian bollworm {Earias insulana) whicli they referred to the genus 

 RJiogas. Specimens presumed to be R. lefroyi had been given this 

 manuscript name previously by Ashmead. 



Recently, T. Bainbrigge Fletcher, Esq., the Imperial Entomologist 

 of India, sent me a number of specimens bred from the bollworm in India 

 asking me if I thought all were of the same species and whether they 

 were Rhogas lefroyi. A comparison of the specimens with the short 

 desciption of R. lefroyi and the photograph of the wings which accom- 

 pany it, show them to agree very well, and they seem unquestionably 

 to be the species described by Dudgeon and Gough. They do not, 

 however, belong to the genus Rhogas, but are referable to Microbracon. 

 It is evident from Dudgeon and Cough's original figure also that they 

 cannot belong to Rhogas as the submedian cell in the hind wing is very 

 short and in the front wing is the same length as the median, while 

 the basal vein is almost perpendicular to the costa and not strongly 

 oblique as in Rhogas. From the description the antennae also are of a 

 different conformation from those of Rhogas. 



It appears therefore that this insect must be known as Microbracon 

 lefroyi and that the other species described in the same publication as 

 Rhogas Mlcheneri is probably also a Microbracon. There is of course a 

 possibility that the species may have previously been described, although 

 I have not been able to find that this is the case. In order to make 

 the species more easily recognizable I have drawn up the following 

 description from the specimens forwarded by Professor Fletcher. 



Microbracon lefroyi. Dudgeon and Gough. 

 Agric. Journ. Egypt, vol. 3, pt. 2, p. 109 (1914) (Rhogas). 



Female. Length 2-3 mm. ; ovipositor slightly longer than the 

 abdomen, but not C[uite so long as the abdomen and propodeum together. 

 Body honey-yellow, varied with black and piceous, legs usually some- 

 what lighter and the sides of the abdomen often much paler. Black 

 markings variable ; in melanic specimens they include spot on front 

 above base of antennae, ocellar space, occiput, autennte, stripe on each 

 of the three lobes of mesonotum, scutellum, p^opor' um irregular marks 

 on pleurae, abdominal segments three to five, except narrow lateral 



