62 M. W. R. de V. GRAHAM 



Spalangia rhizoperthae Risbec, 1951 : 365-366, <$ $. 

 Choetospila elegans Westwood ; Peck, 1963 : 599. 



Type material. Choetospila elegans Westwood. For a long time I could not 

 locate the types in the Hope Department, University Museum, Oxford, as no speci- 

 men bore this name. Recently, however, I found a group of 7 females which are 

 certainly syntypes of elegans. They are mounted on rectangular cards and all 

 except two bear a distinctive blue lozenge-shaped label, on which is written in 

 Westwood's handwriting " W/India com corn Raddon Africa " [the word " corn " 

 has been rather badly written in the first instance, and has been scored out and 

 rewritten ; the letter " W " is Westwood's monogram, which he often attached to 

 the labels of his specimens]. The mandibles, palpi, and antennae of one specimen 

 are dissected off and gummed on the card ; evidently Westwood's figures of these 

 structures (pi. 25, figs, ioa, 10b, iod) were made from this specimen. I designate as 

 LECTOTYPE another specimen which is in perfect condition and fits the description 

 and figure best of all ; it bears a lozenge-shaped label as described above, also my 

 lectotype label. 



Spalangioniorpha fasciatipennis Girault. Types (not seen by the writer) from Port 

 Douglas, Nelson, and Cooktown, Queensland, Port Darwin, Northern Territory, 

 Australia : in Queensland Museum. The species was placed in synonymy with 

 Choetospila elegans by Waterston (1921 : 20) whose conclusion was accepted by 

 Gahan (1946 : 353). 



Spalangia metallica Fullaway. Holotype $ (not seen) in U.S.N.M. ; Gahan 

 (1946 : 353) examined it and stated that it differed in no way from typical Choeto- 

 spila elegans. 



Spalangia rhizoperthae Risbec. Type, Africa, Senegal, M'Bambey, in Museum 

 Nationale d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris. It was re-examined by Steffan (see Boucek, 

 1963 : 505 ; this author synonymized the species with Choetospila elegans). 



In both sexes of elegans macropterous, brachypterous and apterous forms occur. 



Cosmopolitan. 



Biology. Recorded as a parasite of various beetles associated with stored grain. 

 Gahan (1946 : 353) stated that its most common host is apparently the rice weevil, 

 Sitophilus oryza (L.). For a complete host-list see Peck (1963 : 599). There are 

 also records of elegans having been reared from Scolytidae on certain trees in British 

 Honduras and the Panama Canal zone (see Gahan, 1946 : 353). 



THEOCOLAX Westwood 



Theocolax Westwood, 1832a : 127. Type-species : Th. formiciformis Westwood, by monotypy. 



Laesthia Haliday, 1833 : 335. Type-species : L. vespertina Haliday, by monotypy. 



Theocolax Westwood ; Thomson, 1876a : 207, 212-213. 



? Cerocephala Ashmead, 1904 : 334, ex parte. 



Theocolax Westwood ; Gahan, 1946 : 355. 



Theocolax Westwood ; Nikol'skaya, 1952 : 250, 253-255. 



Theocolax Westwood ; Peck et al., 1964 : 28. 



The respective type-species of Theocolax Westwood and Laesthia Haliday (formi- 



