Cambridge Entomological Club, 1874
PSYCHE

A Journal of Entomology

founded in 1874 by the Cambridge Entomological Club
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This is the CEC archive of Psyche through 2000. Psyche is now published by Hindawi Publishing.

C. H. T. Townsend.
Muscoid Parasites of the Cotton - Stainer and Other Lygaeids.
Psyche 20(2):91-94, 1913.

This article at Hindawi Publishing: https://doi.org/10.1155/1913/43638
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19131
Brues-A New Species of Phoridce from New England 9 1
in addition to one long terminal spur; hind tibia with three bristles, one at basal third on outer edge, one just before middle on the front side and one just before tip on front side in addition to two apical spurs: in addition the hind tibia is transversely striated on the hind (i. e., inner, as the leg folds next to the body) side near tip. Wings yellowish, the veins yellowish brown: costa not thickened, reaching almost two-thirds the length of the wing, its bristles very short and dense; third vein very finely bristly as far as the fork; first vein ending midway between the humeral cross-vein and the tip of the third; second vein lying very close to the third, from which it emerges at a very slight angle; fourth vein curved strongly at base but straight beyond and faintly recurved at apex, ending at the.wing tip; fifth and sixth slightly sinuous; seventh distinct. Halteres clear yellow. Described from three females sent to me for identification by Mr. C. W. Johnson. Type from Kingston, R. I., May 7, 1905. Para-
types: Riverside, Mass., May 20,1905; Hampton, N. H., May 16, 1905 (S. A. Shaw). Type in the collection of the Boston Society of Natural History.
This species resembles C. variabilis Brues from Colorado and Washington more closely than any other described species and may possibly be only a well-marked form of variabilis. However, the halteres are pale, there is much more of the orange color on the abdomen, and there are only two supra-antenna1 bristles. From C. thoracica it differs by the non-thickened costa and from other related species in the chsetotaxy of the tibiae. MUSCOID PARASITES OF THE COTTON-STAINER AND OTHER LYGEIDS.
BY CHARLES H. T. TOWNSEND.
Lima, Peru.
The only muscoid parasites of Lygceidce so far known in any stage have come to light in Sicily and Peru. The number of species has now reached four, one of which has been reared to the ac'ult. The finding of these may be taken in chronologic order. 1) Neilsen mentions finding what was probably a muscoid mag- got (Snylteflueart) in the abdomen of an adult of Lygceus saxatilis Scop. in Sicily. The fly was not reared. The species may have
been a Clytiomyia (recorded from Sardinia), Eliozeta, or Elomya (Ananta), less likely a Xysta, Cistogaster, or Besseria. 2) The next finding of muscoid maggots in Lygseids was by Pu&e 20:91-94 (1913). hup Ytpsychu einclub orgtiWM-@Il.htiiil



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92 Psyche [~pil
the writer at Piura, Peru.
Three maggots were found in adults of
Stenomacra sp. near limbatipennis Stal, July 27 (one in 3rd stage), and July 28 (one in 2nd, and one in 1st stage), 1911. In each case
one maggot occurred alone in the abdomen of the host. On August 19, 1911, a dried puparium of the same species was found in the contents of a box in which adults of this host had been placed on August 1. The fly was not reared.
The species is almost
certainly Xanthomelanodes peruanus Towns., which is very abund- ant in the Piura valley, as is likewise the host. Anal stigmata of third-stage maggot and pu-parium-The anal stigmata1 plates are rather narrowed, not as broad as long, closely approximated, well raised as on a short process; the three slits are ridge-like, disposed at about 22i0 angle to the long (dorso- ventral) axis of the plates, rather elongate, sharp, well raised. 3) On February 3, 1911, the writer collected 817 adults of Dysdercus ruficollis Linn6 on cotton in the Chira valley between Sojo and Macacarii, picking and putting in with them at the time some opened cotton bolls and keeping them alive in a fine-screened wooden cage as long as they would live on mashed moistened cot- tonseed, in the hope of securing parasites. This species is the com-
mon cotton-stainer of the Peruvian coast region. No sign of
muscoid parasitization was obtained from the lot other than the finding onFebruary 10 of a small muscoid puparium in the lint of one of the opened cotton bolls that had been put in the cage Feb- ruary 4.
This puparium had transformed from a maggot that had evidently escaped from a stainer to the lint of the opened boll before collection. The puparium proved to be parasitized, a Perilampus sp. issuing from it on March '2, 1911. Mr. H. S. Smith's recent investigation of the planidium stage of Perilampus shows that it enters the muscoid maggot while the latter is still in situ within the body of its host. This explains the finding of the present parasitized puparium within a cage which the adult of Perilampus could not have entered. The hyperparasite was de- termined by Mr. J. C. Crawford. The puparium was probably that of Acaulona peruviana n. sp. It was sent in with the reared hyperparasite.
My assistant, Mr. E. W. Rust, had better success in rearing the fly in 1912. From 594 adults of D. ruficollis collected at various dates during the last week of September and the first week of Octo-



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19131 Townssnd-Muscoid Parasites of the Cotton-Siainer and Other Lygceids 93 ber at San Jacinto in the Chira valley, a little below Macacarh, there issued on October 29, 1912, two flies, a male and a female, of Acaulona peruviana n. sp.
Acaulona pemviana sp. nov.
Length of body, about 7 mm.; of wing, about 6 mm. Light yellow to tawny yel- low and deep golden. Face including parafacials silvery, with a golden sheen; that of male hardly more golden than that of female. Parafrontals deep gold in both sexes, frontalia dark brown to blackish. Antennae and palpi yellowish, former tinged with brownish on front edge. Occiput golden. Thoracic scutum broadly deep gold on borders and transverse suture, leaving the four broad sub- coalescent vittae in two patches of blackish before and behind suture; the parts of vittse in front of suture more distinctly defined, especially in the male, of which the outer are shorter and broader, and well separated from the inner. Scutellum of female dusky, narrowly yellowish on tip; that of male more yellowish, basal half or less dusky.
Pleurae and cox% silvery, with golden tinge. Abdomen of female rather tawny yellowish to gold, that of male bright light yellow in a well-defined elongate area on each side; irregular soft brownish median fascia, its sections widen- ing posteriorly on hind margin of each segment, usually more conspicuously so in female; last two segments (5 and 6) of female and last segment (6) of male wholly yellowish; fifth segment of male largely dusky. Abdomen of male narrowed and flattened, elongate; that of female widened, swelling on sides, arched. No true abdominal macrochsetse, but the hairs of male in some cases simulate them. Fem- ora largely yellow, the front ones least so and quite blackish above, the hind ones dusky only on tip; rest of legs blackish. Tegulae yellow to golden, especially on disc. Wings blackish on less than costal one-half, abruptly subhyaline on rest;. apical cell clear except sometimes on front margin and tip, closed in margin. This species seems more closely related to A. tehuantepeca Towns. than to A. costata v.d.W.
Described from two reared specimens, male and female, San Jacinto, Chira valley, Piura department, Peru, issued October 29, 1912.
These types will be deposited in the U. S. N. M. The species is comparatively rare, only five specimens having been col- lected by the writer in Peru during three years, these being four females and one male as follows:-One female, Somate, Rio Chira, November 18, 1910, on flowers of Telanthera sp. ; one male on foli- age, Chapairh, Rio Piura valley, May 21, 1911; two females, Canada de Samhn, Chira valley, February 14, 1912, on flowers of Philibertella flava; and one small female (about 5 mm.), Sullana, Chira valley, February 17, 1912, on foliage. This species will be difficult to distinguish from Xanthomelanodes peruanus until one becomes familiar with the generic and specific



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94 Psyche [April
characters of the two forms.
X. peruanus has short but pro-
nounced abdominal macrochsetse, abdomen subcylindrical in male and nearly same but shorter in female, the black of wings graduates into the subhyaline, the femora are blackish, the face golden especially in male, the abdominal triangles are shining blackish to black, the tegulse are pale yellowish to whitish, the scutellum wholly black and thoracic vittse more clearly defined. Acaulona shows the distinctive fades of the Trichopodice in the male sex, and rather that of the Polistomyiice in the female sex, only lacking the cilia of hind tibiae.
PupariumÌÔRathe short-stout in form, swollen. The anal stigmatal plates are broad, contiguous, closely approximated, each nearly as broad as long, not raised; the three slits are ridge- like and obliquely disposed, being at about 45' angle to both axes of the plates, rather short and sharply linear, a very little raised, their bases swelling.
(4) From the same lot of 594 adults of D. ruficollis there was also found issued October 29, 1912, with the above two specimens of A. peruviana, a third puparium still containing the fly and sup- posed by Mr. Rust to belong to the same species. It proves to be an entirely distinct genus from both Acaulona and Xanthome- lanodes. The fly has not issued, and the contents are probably dried. The anal stigmata are well produced and prominent, approximated, and the three slits or divisions of each are swollen tuberculate instead of linear ridge-like. Puparium-Length about 6 mm., being about the length of the Acaulona puparium but not so swollen. Anal stigmatal plates produced into a rather high process, height about equal to long axis of plate or dorsoventral diameter, each plate rather narrowed, the two approximated but not actually contiguous; the three slits appear tuberculate by reason of their greatly swollen bases, each plate presenting the appearance of three rounded divisions, the axis of slits at about 45' angle to both axes of plates, the slits them- selves apparently irregularly compressed-sinuate.



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