PTEROMALIDAE OF N.W. EUROPE 349 



Pirene chalybea Haliday 



Pirene chalybea Haliday, 1833 : 338, $ \nec $\. 



? Corynocere brevicornis Nees, 1834 : 124, $. 



Pirene rubi Haliday, 1844 : 296, $, syn. n. 



Pirene chalybea Haliday, 1844 : 296, $. 



Pirene Scylax Walker, 1848 : 106, 162, o\ syn. n. 



? Pirene eximia Haliday ; Thomson, 1876 : 190 [nee $]. 



Pirene graminea Kutter, 1934 : 16—62 [nee Haliday 1833]. 



Pirene chalybea Haliday ; Johansson, 1936 : 6 [ex parte']. 



Type material. Pirene chalybea Haliday. Syntypes in BM(NH), one female 

 (probably not a Haliday specimen) and 2 <$ ; Haliday coll., Box 23, a female (No. 

 1663) labelled " Ireland, Haliday ", also several other males and females which are 

 not labelled as chalybea. Haliday's description of the female is more detailed than 

 that of the male ; hence I choose as LECTOTYPE the female in Haliday's collection 

 (No. 1663). 



Corynocere brevicornis Nees. Types now lost. I surmise that this species may 

 have been the same as chalybea. 



Pirene rubi Haliday. Haliday's description (1844 : 295) states " Abdomine $ 

 depressiusculo thoracis longitudine " but gives no characters for the male, hence a 

 female must be chosen as lectotype. In BM(NH) there is only one male labelled as 

 rubi but as just remarked, Haliday did not describe this sex. Assuming that he had 

 correctly associated the sexes of rubi, I assembled those males in his collection which 

 agreed with the male in the BM(NH), together with all the females conspecific with 

 these males. Amongst these specimens in Haliday's collection there is a batch of 

 males and females (Nos. 1 767-1 773) mounted on a card which bears the word 

 " Rubus " in his handwriting ; I consider them to be syntypes of rubi and designate 

 a female (No. 1770) as LECTOTYPE. 



Pirene scylax Walker. One male in BM(NH), LECTOTYPE, bearing a Water- 

 house label. 



The hind tibial pecten of male chalybea extends over the distal two-thirds of the 

 tibia ; its hairs are regularly disposed in the distal part, but more irregularly basad, 

 much as in female graminea, Text-fig. 283. The pecten of the female is less regular 

 than that of the male, though more regular than that of paludum. 



Britain, Ireland (common), Germany, Switzerland, Sweden ; probably 

 widely distributed in Europe. 



Biology. Kutter (1934) gave a lengthy account of the morphology and biology of 

 this species (under the name graminea Hal.) ; he reared it in the Rheintal province 

 of Switzerland as an endophagous parasite of Contarinia pisi (Winn.). In BM(NH) 

 there is a series of specimens reared in July 1931 from this locality, evidently 

 representing part of Kutter's material ; these specimens are chalybea Haliday, and 

 not graminea. Probably the species recorded under the name graminea, as a parasite 

 of the same host in Germany (Secretariat, etc. 1966 : 120, 130) was also chalybea ; the 

 material was determined by Delucchi, who had not seen the type of graminea. In 

 BM(NH) there are also series of chalybea swept from a field of peas, on 27.vii and 



