Australian insectsFroggatt, Walter W. (Walter Wilson)
Science
Australian insects
Froggatt, Walter W. (Walter Wilson)
Insects -- Australia
Additional species of CHALCIDIDAE have been added to our fauna by the
researches of Messrs. Perkins and Koebele (Bulletins 1, pts. 6 & 8
Hawaii 1905). In the _Encryritinae_ he describes 12 new species, most
of them bred from the pupae of the Dryinids collected in Queensland,
but a few from more southern regions. _Chalcerinys eximia_ is only
¹⁄₂₅ of an inch in length; is of a rich metallic green tint marked
with black and brassy-yellowish tints, and is furnished with long
antennae. It ranges from Bundaberg to Sydney. In the EUPELMINAE
he describes one new species parasitic upon the parasite fly,
_Pipunculus cinerascens_, under the name of _Anastatus pipunculi_. It
is a bright metallic green and purple little creature about ¹⁄₁₂ of
an inch in length. One species of the TETRASTICHINAE, which he calls
_Ootetrastichus beatus_, has been bred from the eggs of leaf-hoppers
from both Queensland and Fiji, while another parasite on the eggs of a
Jassid embedded in the branchlets of a Eucalyptus was bred in Southern
Queensland. Perkins describes it under the name of _Pterygogramma
acuminata_, a tiny creature not ¹⁄₂₅ of an inch in length, of general
brown and yellowish tints.
[Illustration:
=Fig. 47.=--_Megastigmus brachychitoni_ (Froggatt)
♀. A yellow and brown Chalcid, bred from the large fleshy
galls on the kurrajong trees.
(“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)]
[Illustration:
=Fig. 48.=--_Coelocyba viridilineata_ (Froggatt).
A pale yellow and green Chalcid infesting the large fleshy
galls on the kurrajong trees.
(“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)]
Five species of the parasitic wasps belonging to the MYMARIDAE are
described from Queensland. They are all tiny little creatures with
slender feathered wings and long legs. They deposit their eggs in
the eggs of different species of leaf-hoppers, and some species are
very abundant. Four species of the more robust parasites belonging
to the Genus _Aphanomerus_ are also described as egg parasites from
Queensland. After studying the galls and insects from the wattles
which I described in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society 1892, as
belonging to the Cynipidae, Dr. Mayr finds that the insects will not
fit into any known genera, so he has formed the Genus _Trichilogaster_
to contain _T. maideni_, which forms galls on the branchlets of _Acacia
longifolia_, and _T. a-longifoliae_, which aborts the flower buds
of the same wattle into oval or rounded red and yellow galls as big
as marbles. He describes a third species I sent him, _T. pendulae_,
forming rounded galls on _Acacia pendula_, and has made the remarkable
discovery that the tiny wasp deposits a female egg, which forms the
central cavity on the gall with a second male egg in a small cavity on
the side of the same gall, so that a male and female wasp is always
produced from each gall, and he thinks this will be the case with our
two common species when they are examined.
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