APANTELES MELANOSCELUS GIPSY-MOTH PAEASITE, 3 



DISTRIBUTION IN EUROPE. 



Apanteles melanoscelus is probably present over most of Europe. 

 Specimens have been received at the Gipsy Moth Laboratory from 

 Vienna, Austria ; Sicily, Italy ; Bendery, Eussia ; and from Saxony, 

 Brandenburg, Pomerania, and Rhenish Prussia, Germany. 



DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 



It is evident that solitaHus and melanoscelus are closely related, 

 and in time it may be shown that they are the same. If such should 

 prove to be the case, the name melanoscelus would have to go, as 

 solitarius has the priority. For the present they are to be considered 

 as distinct species, and as Ratzeburg's ® description of A. tnelanoscelus 

 is very meager, the following new description has been prepared.^ 



Female. 



Length 3 mm. Face feebly shagreened and strongly shiny, with a weak 

 median welt below insertion of antennae ; vertex, temples, and cheeks shagreened, 

 pilose, shiny ; mesoscutum shallowly, sometimes indistinctly punctate and shiny ; 

 scutellum with the disk very slightly convex, smooth, and polished ; mesopleurte 

 smooth and highly polished, with only a few punctures anteriorly and below, 

 and a conspicuous weakly crenulate depression posteriorly ; proiDodeum rugose 

 except at base, strongly shiny, and with a prominent median longitudinal carina ; 

 forewing with stigma large and with the radius very distinctly longer than the 

 transverse ci;bitus ; posterior coxge large, smooth, and shiny, with a conspicuous 

 flattened area on outer edge at base ; spurs of posterior tibire equal in length 

 and about half as long as the metatarsus. Abdomen stout ; entirely shiny ; first 

 tergite broader at apex than at base, rugose punctate ; second broad, rectangu- 

 lar, more or less roughened, without distinct lateral membranous margins ; 

 third tergite with the rugosity usually confined to the extreme base ; remainder 

 of abdomen polished ; ovipositor hardly exserted ; hypopygium not extending 

 beyond apex of last dorsal segment. Black ; antennse entirely black ; tegulfe 

 black ; wings hyaline, the stigma dai-k brow^n ; all coxse and trochanters black, 

 except sometimes apex of the latter; base of fore femora usually, basal half 

 of middle femora, and most of the posterior femora black or blackish ; apical 

 fourth of hind tibise and the hind tarsi dusky ; sides and venter of the 

 abdomen black. (PI. I, A.) 



Male. 



Essentially as in the female. Differs only in the longer antennfe, in the 

 usually darker legs, and in the basal abdominal tergites being less roughened. 



The species is exceedingly close to A. solitarius Ratzeburg, but 

 apparently the differences are sufficientl}'- well marked and sufficiently 

 constant to justify holding the two forms distinct. In A. solitarius 

 the antennae are brownish testaceous toward base, the legs, with the 

 exception of the coxae and the basal trochanters, are practically en- 



'^ Ratzeburg, Julius Theodoe Christian, op. cit. 1844. 



" The description and translations of references Nos. 3 and 5 were made by Mr. C. F. W. 

 Muesebeck. 



