6i6 



A New Enemy of Douglas Fir. [Jan., 



this pest can be kept in check it will be impossible to keep up 

 the stock from home-grown supplies." 



A number of points render this communication of Mr. Crozier's 

 interesting. 



In the first place, this is the first record of the insect in our 

 country. Mr. W. F. Kirby very kindly wrote me to say that 

 while two other species, viz., Megastigmus collaris and the 

 large Californian species, Megastigmus pinus, were in the collec- 

 tion at the Natural History Museum, the present species, 

 Megastigmus spermotrophus, was not represented. The insect, 



occurs, too, as an enemy on a tree magnificent both for orna- 

 ment and for timber, and justly regarded as one of the most 

 valuable trees introduced in the last century. Although intro- 

 duced into Britain only seventy-eight years ago, there are speci- 

 mens in our country 130 ft. in height, and thick in proportion. 

 Again, M. spermoti'ophus belongs to a family of Hymenopterous 

 insects, the Chalcididce, the larvae of which in the great majority 

 of cases are* not feeders on plants but are parasitic on other 

 insects. Further, while it is admitted that some species of 



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