
Notes on Some Parasites of Sugar Cane Insects etc. 273 
(i.e. the Mantoidea, Phasmoidea and Phylloidea). The Mantieformia 
approach .very closely to the Neuroptera in some respects, and I am 
by no means certain that the Mantieformia do not represent an inter- 
mediate stage between the Neuroptera and the Platyptera. 
While I would not insist upon a Platyptero-Mantieformia (or an 
Embioideo-Mantiformia) line of descent, it is nevertheless true that the 
Embioidea present many points of similarity to the Mantieformia, and 
are undoubtedly the more primitively organized of the two. It is not 
claimed, however, that the Mantieformia are the descendents of the 
Embioidea, but merely that the Embioidea have departed but little 
from the ancestral forms common to the to two groups — at least so far 
as their general structure is concerned. On this account, the fact that 
no Embioidea have been found earlier than the Tertiary period, while 
the Mantieformia are geologically much older, has no particular weight. 
Since the preservation of fossil remains is wholly a matter of chance, 
it is small wonder that the geological record of the ancestry of such 
rare insects as the Embioidea is very incomplete, and this would in 
all probability account for the fact that we know of no fossil ancestral 
forms connecting them with the Mantieformia. The Blattieformia 
(Blattoidea and Isoptera) are very closely related to the Mantieformia, 
and doubtless branched off very near the origin of the Mantieformia 
line. It must. ce admitted, however, that until we have at our disposal 
more information concerning the anatomical details of a large number 
of intermediate forms (wheter living or fossil), the discussion of the 
lines of descent leading from the löwer pterygote forms must be regarded 
as too highly speculative, to be of any great practical value. 
By way of summary, the principal points brought out in the 
present paper may be briefly stated as followes. The marked simi- 
larity of structure between insects of the apterygote order Myrientomata 
and the pterygote order Platyptera would indicate that there has been 
a Myriento-Platyptera line of descent leading from the ancestors of 
the Apterygota to those of the Pterygota. Similary, there are indi- 
cations of a Dicelluro-Dermaptera and a Dicelluro-Coleoptera line of 
descent from ancestors resembling the Japygidae to the ancestors of 
the Dermaptera and Coleoptera. To these may be added a Thysanuro- 
Ephemeroidea line from the ancestors of the Thysanura to those of the 
mayflies. These, and other lines which will doubtless be added to them, 
would indicate that the Pterygota are in a sence a „polyphyletie* 
group, derived, not through one line, but through several lines of descent. 
Notes on some parasites of sugar came insects in Java 
with descriptions of new-Hymenoptera Chalcidoidea.*) 
By A. A. Girault, Nelson (Cairus), N. Queensland. Australia. 
Herr P. van der Goot, Entomologist of the‘ Experiment Station 
of the Java Sugarcane Industry at Pasoeroean, Java, was kind enough 
to send to me fur identification a number of egg-parasites of sugarcane 
insects upon part of which I report in the following pages. 
*) Contribution No. 9, Entomological Laboratory, Bureau of Sugar Experi- 
ment Stations, Bundaberg, Queensland. 
Bogen XVIII der „Zeitschr. f. wiss. Ins.-Biologie*, Druck vom 20. November 1915. 
