249 



at Orange, Cal., fully 80 per cent, of the black scales were killed by 

 this parasite. 



From these facts it seems probable that the discovery of the new 

 insect will prove important and we have initiated efforts to secure liv- 

 ing specimens from Australia. The few facts which Mr. Crawford gives 

 concerning it we quote from his letter of November 24, 1889 : 



" I received some three months ago some Icerya from a place some 50 miles South 

 of Adelaide, the owner of the orchard not having seen anything of the kind before 

 and wanting to know what they were. These I placed as usual in a bottle loosely 

 stoppered with with cotton wool. "With the Icerya was a Chrysopa larva, which for 

 some weeks was feeding on the eggs. One day on examining it I discovered several 

 hymenopters (Proctotrupidse?), the female yellowish brown, the male almost black. 

 On examination [ found that many might have escaped through the cotton stopping 

 being insecure, but I suppose that I have bred about thirty since. It is strange that 

 this is the only instance of a Hymenopterous parasite of the Icerya yet discovered in 

 South Australia. I send you a few of these under separate cover. I presume the 

 small black insect is the male. * * * 



Since the following description was drawn up we have received a re- 

 port* by Mr. Henry Tryon, assistant curator of the Queensland Museum 

 at Brisbane, in which he describes, without name, a Chalcidid parasite 

 of Icerya which he says is very common about Brisbane, and which he 

 believes is responsible for the rarity of Icerya in that vicinity. A care- 

 ful perusal of his description leads us to believe that he had our insect 

 before him ; but as he has proposed no name ours will hold. It is very 

 encouraging to learn that the species is so abundant. 



OPHELOSIA, n. g. 



Closely resembles in habitus Dilophog aster Howard (See Ann. Rept. Dept. Agr., 1880, 

 p. 368, where it is described as Tomocera, subsequently changed to Dilophogaster on 

 account of the preoccupation of Tomocera in Thysanura), with which it agrees in many 

 characters, but from which it is sharply defined. The antennal peculiarities are 

 identical in the two forms, viz : The simple, clavate, 10-jointed female antennae, and 

 the compressed, serrate, hairy, 9-jointed male form. The wings in Ophelosia differ 

 markedly, as follows : The sub-marginal vein is not curved downward ; the marginal 

 is more than twice as long as stigmal ; just below the bend of the sub-marginal 

 in the female is a broad patch of very stout bristles arising from the wing surface. 

 The petiole of the abdomen is nearly as long as the width of the metascutum ; the 

 fimbriae of the callus are very dense, but short. The tufts of hair at base of abdomen 

 are sparse. The hind tibiae are furnished at tip with a long, slender, slightly-curved 

 spine, nearly as long as first tarsal joint, while in Dilophogaster it is entirely unarmed. 



O. CRAWFORDI, n. sp. 



Female. — Length, 2 mm ; expanse, 4 mm . General color honey-yellow, somewhat darker 

 dorsally than ventrally. Head : face and vertex strongly transverse-rugose ; ocelli 

 concolorous ; eyes darker ; antennae with club more dusky and with joints 2-6 of 

 flagellum paler than the rest. Thorax : pronotum and mesonotum plainly sha- 

 greened, with sparse, appressed concolorous pile; mesoscutellum faintly striate; lateral 

 parts of mesoscutum strongly rugose, the centre faintly so ; the four mesoscutellar 

 piliferous tubercles as also the hairs, black, a small spot behind each tegula and the 

 lateral parts of the mesoscutum black or blackish; fimbria of metascutum white; 



*This report will be reviewed at leugth in the next number of Insect Life. . 



