A. A. Girault.
A New Melittobia from Queensland, Australia.
Psyche 19(6):203-205, 1912.

This article at Hindawi Publishing: https://doi.org/10.1155/1912/31914
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19121 . ffiroufiÌÔ. New MetiHobia front Queensland, Awtmlia 808 fss distznet markings ok the abdomen.
The female ia larger, lacks the bands on the antemiffi and has It
(Fig. 3 ; 3 shows the wing
0
rat
a of'abdomen lighter, greyish yellow; legs yellow, the ko femora washed with dilute dusky;
venation grayish;




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204 Psyche [December
wings lightly, uniformly, fumated throughout, the posterior wings hyaline. Eyes dark red. Distal tarsal joint not darker than the rest of the tarsus. Fore and posterior wings densely, uniformly ciliate in the disk, the marginal cilia of the fore wings short, those of the posterior wings nearly twice longer yet the longest here (middle of caudal margin) are not longer than a fourth of the blade's greatest width (across apex of the venation); they are moderately short. The fore wings are about two and a quarter times longer than wide. Stigma1 vein distinct; postmarginal vein absent; other veins normal. The posterior wings bear about twelve lines of discal ciliation across its widest part. Two dis- tinct parallel lines of discal cilia in the fore wing run along the caudal margin opposite the venation, while beneath the slender portion of the submarginal vein are two short lines of minute cilia, one on each side of the base of the cephalic of the two long lines just noted. Posterior wings broad. Distal joint of tarsi longest of the four. Parapsidal furrows complete, long; the keystone-shaped (cuneate) mesoscutum starred with minute white setigerous dots, also present on the parapsides but absent else- where. Scutellum regularly rectangular, longer than wide. Ab- domen sessile, ovipositor not exserted, long. Abdomen ovate, clothed with paired rows of minute setae. Antennae 9-jointed scape, pedicel, 1 ring-join t, 3-jointed funicle and %jointed club ; subclavate. Scape normal, slightly compressed, only moderate in length; pedicel obconic, somewhat longer than any of the following joints; ring-joint very short, like a lamella; funicle joints 2 and 3 subequal,
slightly wider than long, 1 subquadrate, slightly longer than wide; club cylindrical-ovate, its proximal two joints slightly wider than long, each larger than any of the funicle joints, more than thrice the size of the small apical joint which is conical and terminates in a stout, spur-like seta arising from its center. Funicle and club joints bearing, as seen from any single aspect, several conspicuous, oblique white sulci. Vertex sparsely pubescent.
MaleLength 1.25 mm.; somewhat more robust than the other sex.
Entirely different in color and in certain structures. General color light honey yellow, contrasting with the female; only the dorsal aspect of the abdomen, the femora, the distal tarsal joint and the antenna1 scape darker, nearly fuscous, the



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181 Q] OiravliÌÔ New Melt((0Ma from Queensland, Australia 205 antenna1 flagellum, however, greyish black; venation greyish brown, the fore wings uniformly, rather lightly, fumated through- out. Differing from the female in the following characters: the fore wings are perfect but very small and the stigmal vein is absent; the posterior wings are reduced in proportion. The tibial spur is lengthened, especially on the caudal legs; the aritenn~e are more compact, the acape enormously enlarged, but the appendage is 9-jointed if a ring-joint is present, which I doubt; the pedicel is short and attached to the inner side of the scooplike portion of the scape and is wider than long; all fun& joints wider than long, the first short, transverse, not a third of the length of either the second or third, which are subequal and large; club as in the female, but it is somewhat more compact and the terminal spur is just traceable as a nipple-like projection from the apex. Body subliispid, the pubescence especially noticeable over the whole abdomen and on the antenna1 scape; suici on flagellum reduced and present on the club jdnts only. Fore "wing bearing about eight lines of discal dilation; its marginal cilia are short. Described from three malea and ten females received for iden- tificaton from Mr. Henry Tryon, Government Entomologist and Vegetable Pathologist, Department of Agriculture and Stock, Brisbane, mounted in balsam on two slides labelled, "Host, Pison qkolns (Hym.) Mt, Tambourine, S. Queensland, Dept. Ag. & S., 11; 13; H."
Types: No. By. 997, Queensland Museum, Brisbane, two nifties, seven females on a single slide in balsam, CotypesÌÔOn male, three females on a single balsam slide deposited in the col- lection of the Departmeat of Agriculture and Stock, Brisbane. Mr. Tryon informs me that the parasites emerged from the host in its cocoon but not until after it had transformed into the adult ; the latter died. A number of the parasitic larrae make their way out from each. Pison and pupate nakedly, This Melittobia, the first known from Australia, differs from a North herican species as yet not identified but which is paf- &&tie on the larva of Scel$phom cementaviuw., the common mud dauber of the United States, in a numbel1 of specific characters, all distinct but none marked. The shape of the antexma1 joints differs, the coloration and the pubescence or dilation of the wings. I could not discover a ring-joint in the male of the American species either and have reason to think it is absent.



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