REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST I918 



129 



shorter than the rotinded ventral plate. The females of some species 

 have hyaline wings and Kieffer is unable to distinguish them from 

 those of Clinodiplosis, except by the reddish color of the abdomen and 

 the fuscous spot at its base. The subgenus Coprodiplosis Kieff. 

 may be separated from the tjrpical Lestodiplosis by the hyaline wings. 

 The larvae, according to Kieffer, are zoophagous, subsisting upon the 

 larvae of Cecidomyiids, Mycetophilids and Xylophagids. He has 

 observed them living upon the larvae of Rhopalomyia 

 tanaceticola. This record of zoophagous habits is confirmed 

 by the rearings of American species, since members of this genus 

 were obtained from a wide variety of galls and the larvae evidently 

 subsisted upon Itonids, other small insects or acarids. See figures 

 23, 24 for the general characteristics of these larvae. 



The genus, as recognized by us, is easily separated from all other 

 Itonids by the very characteristic triangular lobe at the base of the 

 slender basal clasp segment. The dorsal plate is usually short and 

 rather deeply and triangularly emarginate, the lobes being narrow, 



Fig. 24 Lestodiplosis species, dorsal view of posterior segments of larva (enlarged, 



original) 



parallel and broadly rounded, while the ventral plate is long, rather 

 broad and narrowly rounded apically. Species referable to this 

 group are mostly small, ranging from .75 to about 2' mm in length, 

 usually yellowish or reddish, though a few are brownish. 



Species of this genus are very frequently reared from various galls 

 and are probably zoophagous. This is undoubtedly true of L. 

 grassator Fyles, L. peruviana Felt ^ and a number of 

 other species, though it will be observed by referring to the records, 

 that a considerable number of species have been reared from flowers 



^Ent. News, 22:10-11, 191 1. 



