104 MISC. PUBLICATION 17 4, U.S. DEPT. OF AGKICULTURE 



scutellum, medially sculptured about like scutellum, laterally more weakly 

 sculptured, without a neck and without carinae or spiracular sulci, the lateral 

 folds also absent except for very small and shallow foveae at basal margin; 

 spiracles small, elliptical; pleura mostly smooth except for a depressed and 

 punctate area below the anterior wing ; dorsum of thorax sparsely clothed with 

 fine but rather conspicuous pale hairs, the propodeum bare except laterally. 

 Legs slender, the hind coxae very weakly sculptured ; tarsi 5-jointed ; inner spur 

 of hind tibia very short and inconspicuous. Fore wings approximately twice 

 as long as broad, not attaining the apex of abdomen in the type ; mostly bare 

 to apex of submarginal vein except for a few cilia marking the position of obso- 

 lete basal vein ; marginal cilia short ; postmarginal vein distinctly longer than 

 marginal, stigmal vein fully two thirds the length of marginal. Abdomen 

 longer and broader than thorax, broadly ovate, the first tergite comprising not 

 over one fourth total length of abdomen, the whole tergum practically smooth 

 or with only very faint traces of sculpture, the apical tergites sparsely hairy ; 

 ovipositor barely visible at apex. 



Color of head and thorax deep black, somewhat shining; abdomen dark 

 reddish testaceous with the lateral margins somewhat darker; ovipositor 

 sheaths black ; antennae dark brown to brownish testaceous with the scape and 

 pedicel darker than the flagellum ; legs reddish testaceous with the coxae all 

 black and the front femora blackish; wings hyaline, the venation brownish 

 testaceous ; mandibles reddish ; palpi dark. 



Type locality. — Concord, Calif. 



Type. — Catalog no. 44840, U.S. National Museum. 



Described from two females from the type locality; the hclotype 

 reared from wheat containing Phytophagd destructor, August 4, 

 1919, by M. C. Lane, and recorded in the Bureau of Entomology 

 under Webster no. 13346, Berkeley no. 191137; the paratype reared 

 from Phytophaga destructor, July 9, 1919, by the same collector and 

 recorded under the same Webster number but Berkeley no. 191054. 

 The abdomen of the paratype is missing. One antenna, the man- 

 dibles, the palpi, one fore wing, and a hind wing from the paratype 

 are mounted on a slide in balsam. The type and remainder of para- 

 type are mounted on card points. 



The only representatives of this species thus far known are the 

 two type specimens, and its known distribution is therefore con- 

 fined to the type locality. Likewise all that is known of its life 

 history is the fact that it attacks the hessian fly occasionally, at 

 least, and that it emerges from the puparium of this host in mid- 

 summer. In all probability the species is normally parasitic upon 

 some other host, possibly some grass-infesting Harmolita. Appar- 

 ently it is of little or no real importance as a parasite of the hessian 



MERISOPORUS CHALCIDIPHAGUS (Walsh and Riley) 



(Fig. 24) 



Semiotellus chalcidiphagus Walsh and Riley, Amer. Ent. 1: 152, 1869; Pro- 

 vancher, Additions et corrections au volume II de la faune entomologique du 

 Canada, traitant les hymenopteres, p. 202. 1889; Webster, U.S.Dept.Agr., Div. 

 Ent., Insect Life 5: 90, 1892; 6: 151, 1893; Dalla Torre, Catalogus hymenop- 

 terorum . . . , v. 5, p. 210, 1898; Webster, U.S.Dept.Agr., Bur. Ent. Bui. (n.s.) 

 67: 97, 1907. 



Semiotellus chalcidephagus Walsh, Amer. Ent. and Bot. 2: 368, 1870: Cresson, 

 Synopsis of the families and genera of the Hymenoptera of America, north of 

 Mexico . . . , p. 241, 1887 ; Smith, Insects of New Jersey . . . , p. 40, 1890 ; Web- 

 ster, Ent. Soc. Wash. Proe. 7 : 115, 1905. 



Homoporus chalcidiphagus Ashmead, in Smith, Insects of New Jersey . . ., 

 p. 558, 1900; Webster, U.S.Dept.Agr., Bur. Ent. Bui. (n.s.) 42: 22, 33, 1903; 

 Viereck, in Smith, Insects of New Jersey .... p. 642, 1910; Phillips, Jour. 

 Econ. Ent. 10 : 145, 1917 ; U.S. Dept. Agr. Farmers' Bui. 1006 : 13, 1918 ; Loch- 

 head, Class book of economic entomology . . . , p. 354, 1919. 



