SEEPHOID AND CHALCIDOID PAEASITES OF THE HESSIAN ELY 99 



DISTRIBUTION 



Specimens of this species have been taken in the following named 

 States of the United States, according to the records available in 

 the Bureau of Entomology and the National Museum: Vermont, 

 New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Tennessee, 

 West Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Mis- 

 souri, Kansas, Iowa, and North Dakota. Very likely it will be 

 found generally distributed over the entire region east of the Rocky 

 Mountains wherever its hosts are to be found. It apparently does 

 not occur in the Pacific Coast States. 



This species has not been recorded from Europe unless under 

 some other name. In the British Museum the writer has seen two 

 female specimens collected on the Isle of Wight which seemed to 

 agree in every way with American representatives of febriculosus. 

 These two specimens constituted a part of the material identified as 

 Homoporus fulviventris (Walker), a species to which febriculosus 

 bears a striking resemblance, but they may be distinguished from the 

 type of that species by the characters cited in the foregoing descrip- 

 tion as distinguishing fulviventris from febriculosus. If these two 

 specimens are in reality febriculosus, then it is possible that some of 

 the records of Homoporus fulviventris in Europe may refer to the 

 present species. 



IMPORTANCE 



Merisus febriculosus is apparently of very little real importance as 

 a parasite of the hessian fly. Hill and Smith state that it is present 

 every year as a parasite of the fly in the eastern part of the United 

 States and that it ranks sixth in abundance in that region. Data 

 are not available for other parts of the country, but it is probable 

 that the species is no more efficient as a fly parasite in other regions 

 than in the territory surveyed by Hill and Smith. The preferred 

 hosts are, without much doubt, the various species of Harmolita, 

 and the species is probably a more or less important factor in the 

 natural control of some of these. 



MERISUS MORDELLISTENAE Crawford 



(Fig. 22) 

 Merisus mordellistenae Crawford, Ent. Soc. Wash. Proc. 12 : 145, 1910. 



DESCRIPTION 



Merisus mordellistenae resembles M. febriculosus but may be dis- 

 tinguished at once by the deep black color of head and thorax, the 

 deeper punctation of the mesoscutum and scutellum, the presence on 

 head and dorsum of thorax of sparse but conspicuous pale hairs, 

 the fact that one mandible is tridentate and the other quadridentate, 

 the somewhat narrower abdomen in the female, and the much shorter 

 funicle joints in the male. It is more closely related to the new 

 species (cognatus) described in this publication, but it is much more 

 deeply sculptured, the postmarginal vein is not longer than the 

 marginal, the antennae are less slender, the second funicle joint is 

 subquadrate, and the club is not three times as long as broad. 



Female. — Length 1.9 to 2.5 mm. Head distinctly broader than thorax, fully 

 three times as broad as thick anteroposterior^, very slightly convex in 



