1918.] 137 



PIPUNCULIDAE AND STYLOPIDAE IN HOMOPTEEA. 

 BY FREDERICK MUIR, F.E.S. 



Few entomologists realize the nuinl)er of Homoptera that are 

 pamsitized by Pipunculidae and Sfylopidae. Dr. 11. C. L. Perkins * 

 has described a number from Australia and Hawaii, and I have found 

 them equally numerous wherever I liave looked for them. When in 

 Scotland several years ago I swejjt over a small patch of grass for 

 Delpliacidae and found about thirt}^ per cent, bearing StyloiJS^ and 

 when collecting Delphacidae in the Hawaiian Islands I have always 

 noticed that a number of these insects were parasitized. In the Philip- 

 pines, Java, and the Malayan Islands, Jassids and Fulgorids bearing 

 these parasites are not uncommon If careful search were made among 

 British Homoptera it is highly })robable that parasitic Piimnculidac or 

 Sfylopidae would be found to be not uncommon. 



While studying the male armature of Delpliacidae in the Hawaiian 

 Islands, I have noticed that a number of parasitized hoppers had abortive 

 genitalia. Upon dissecting such specimens it was alwaj^s found that the 

 parasites had injm'ed or destroyed the testes. The abortion of, or altera- 

 tion to, the genitalia was not confined to the aedeagus or penis, but was 

 common to the armature of the anal segment, the aedeagus, the genital 

 styles, and to the connecting-rods that co-ordinate the movements of 

 these organs. This connexion between the testes and the external 

 genitalia is of interest, as it may throw light upon the specific differences 

 of these organs ; for if an injuiy to the testes can cause such a large 

 alteration to the genitalia, is it not possible that an alteration of the 

 germ-plasm may account for the sj^ecific phallic differences ? 



Crofton, 4 St. Andrews Kd., 

 W. Kensington. 

 April 1918. 



Acanthocinus aedilis L. in N. Devon.— On September 1st, 1917, I was at 

 Mortehoe, X. Devon, and uoticed that the shore from Croyde, along Woola- 

 combe Sands and Morte Point to Rockhaiu ]3ay, was thickly strewn with 

 pit-props, which were being washed up from a vessel that had gone down off 

 Hartland some days previousl}', and the sea continued to throw up logs in large 

 numbers for a fortnight. A fiue (^ specimen of Acajit/iocinus aedilis was cap- 

 tured here by a hidy, with the result that a search was made by my friend 

 Mr. C. D. Heginbotham and myself amongst the pine-logs, which were about 

 10 feet long by from 3 to 12 inches diameter. A large proportion of those 

 thrown up on the rooks were entirely stripped of bark through the rough treat- 

 ment they had received, and a careful examination of them disi losed a not verv 



* Hawaiian Sugar Planter' Assoc. Experiment Station, EntnTn-.lnjTicil Bull. i. pts. iii and iv 

 (190')), » I 



M 



