Descriptions of Some Species of the Genus Pulvilligera 
Strand from the South and Southwest Pacific 
( Hymenoptera : Chalcidoidea ; T orymidae ) 
H. E. Milliron 1 
Strand (1911) proposed the tribe Pulvil- 
ligerini based on a new monobasic genus, 
Pulvilligera, the type of which is P. maxima , 
described by him in the same paper from six 
males collected by H. Sauter in 1908 at Tab 
hanroku, Formosa. He made use of the key 
to the tribes of Toryminae (= Callimominae) 
published by Schmiedeknecht (1909), obvi- 
ously without being aware of the error there- 
in, which described the tribe Megastigmini as 
having one calcar on the hind tibia, instead 
of two that the., group really possesses. If 
Strand had realized this fact, he would prob- 
ably have placed P maxima in the tribe 
Megastigmini, because its close affinity with 
the Megastigmini, except for this one charac- 
ter, was clearly indicated at the time he pro- 
posed the new names. 
Crawford (1914) treated Pulvilligerini as 
a subfamily without having seen P. maxima. 
In his key, Pulvilligerinae was differentiated 
from Megastigminae only on the basis of 
'■’whorls of hair” on the male antennae. The 
identity of the Pulvilligerinae has remained 
completely obscured and unrecognizable for 
many years. Girauit ■ (1915) stated that 
there "is an undescribed genus in this group 
[Megastigmini] like Megastigmus but the 
male antennae are very slender and with 
whorls of hair,” but he had not obtained fe- 
males with certainty. In 1928 the same 
worker described a species which he placed 
in the genus Pulvilligera. 
During 1944 a long series of specimens, 
part of which appear to represent the same 
1 Glendale, West Virginia. Manuscript received 
March 31, 1950. 
species described by Strand from Formosa, 
was collected on one of the Solomon Islands. 
In a recent publication by the writer ( 1949) 
the Pulvilligerinae were omitted from the key 
(p. 259) pending further study of P. maxima 
as well as of the two new species that are 
described later in this paper. This study has 
led to non-recognition of the name Pulvilli- 
gerini and of the subfamily name based on 
it. It is proposed here to treat Pulvilligera 
merely as a genus of the tribe Megastigmini. 
While the male antennae of the three spe- 
cies at hand are distinctly different from those 
of any other known magastigmine species, the 
females are very much like those of other 
species of the genus Megastigmus. The value 
of this antennal character of the male as a 
basis for the recognition of tribal and sub- 
family groups is extremely doubtful because 
males of different species within several dial- 
cidoid genera may exhibit striking differences 
in appearance of the antennae. 
A cknowledgment: The writer gratefully 
acknowledges the kindness of Mr. C. F. W. 
Muesebeck, Chief of the Division of Insect 
Identification, U.S.D-.A., who made it possi- 
ble to study this material at the U. S. National 
Museum. 
Tribe MEGASTIGMINI 
Genus Pulvilligera Strand 
Pulvilligera Strand, Ent. Rundschau 28: 
59, 191 1. Monobasic. Type: P. maxima 
Strand. 
Species of this genus differ from those of 
the typical genus as follows: 
[ 346 ] 
