216 Psyche [December 
A NEW CECIDOMYIID OF THE GENUS LESTODXPLOSIS. 
By Charles W. Johnson, 
Boston Society of Natural History. 
The following species was received from Mr. R, L. Taylor, 
who, in making a biological study of the White-pine weevil 
(■ Pissodea strobi Peck.), has secured many interesting species of 
insects that are either parasitic, predaceous, commensal or other- 
wise. The larvae of the genus Lestodiplosis according to Kieffer 
are zoophagous, subsisting upon the larvae of Cecidomyiids, My- 
cetophilids, and Xylophagids. Dr. E. P. Felt says 1 : — “This 
record of zoophagous habits is confirmed by the rearing of Amer- 
ican species, since members of this genus were obtained from a 
wide variety of galls and the larvae evidently subsisted upon 
Itonidids, other small insects and acarids.” 
Lestodiplosis iridipennis sp. n. 
Head black, antennae white, joints of uniform length, the 
enlarged portions narrowly banded with black. Thorax yellow- 
ish, when viewed from the front showing three broad brown stripes 
extending to the base of the wings, scutellum yellow, metanotum 
black, abdomen yellow with yellow hairs. Legs white, tibiae 
with the base, middle and tip banded with black, tarsi with the 
base and tip of the first and second joints black. The base of the 
third joint is also narrowly black. Wings with yellow and black- 
ish hairs, the latter arranged in spots, these hairs are highly iri- 
descent when viewed at certain angles in a bright light, giving the 
wing a golden yellow color, ornamented by six large, bright, 
purple spots, regularly placed, the two anterior ones between the 
costa and radius, two in the middle of the wing, and the two 
posterior ones extending on both sides of the cubitus, the outer 
end of the cubitus is also slightly purplish. Length 1 . 5 mm. 
One male, July 10, 1928, from material taken at Oneonta, 
N. Y. Type in the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 
This beautiful little midge is so pronounced that I trust the 
above description will suffice. It would run to L. florida in the 
table by Felt, but the antennae do not agree. In the description 
of L. florida the color of the thorax and wings are very different. 
x New York State Museum Bull., Nos. 231-232, p. 129, 1921. 
