T. D. A. Cockerell.
A New Genus of Chalcidoid Hymenoptera (Callimomidae).
Psyche 33(2):36-38, 1926.

This article at Hindawi Publishing: https://doi.org/10.1155/1926/17104
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36 Psyche [April
A NEW GENUS OF CHALCIDOID HYMENOPTERA
(CALLIMOMIDE)
University of Colorado.
Mr. Charles H. Hicks has for many months been studying the insects breeding in dead herbaceous stems. He finds that
these will emerge in great numbers during the winter, in the warmth of the laboratory, and as a result he has obtained a a wonderful series of bees and other insects, some new, others permitting the association of sexes, and many connecting para- sites with hosts. On Feb. 3, 1926, he bred the insect described below from a stem collected at Boulder, Colorado. It has since been determined to be parasitic on a bee of the genus Stelis. Megormyms new genus
Female. Elongate, parallel-sided, highly metallic, minutely sculptured, the head and thorax with only very short and thin pale hair; head transverse, broader than long, with large pro- minent eyes, which are finely, not densely, hairy; front minutely cancellate, transversely striatulate above the antennae; ocelli large, in a triangle, lateral ocelli about as far from eyes as dia- meter of an ocellus; cheeks flattened, not at all bulging behind eyes; last joint of maxillary palpi very long; clypeus with some . relatively large punctures near margin; mandibles broad, not metallic, the outer surface striate and with a few oval punctures; antennae placed low down on face, 12-jointed, no ring-joint dis- cernible; flagellum thickly minutely hairy, middle joints longer than broad; terminal cancellate; no parapsidal grooves; hind COX= extremely large, with a minute reticulate sculpture; femora robust, but not greatly swollen; curved spur of anterior tibia much shorter than basitarsus; tarsi five-jointed, ordinary; wings well developed, hyaline, with a large circular dusky cloud below end of submarginal vein, and a couple of dusky streaks on lower margin at about the same distance from base; marginal Pu&e 33:36-18 (1926). hup ttpsychu einclub orgt13t33-OM html



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19251 A New Genus of Chalcidoid Hymenoptera 37 vein about half as long as submarginal; postmarginal about or almost as long as marginal; stigma1 moderate, clavate, with an upper lateral pointed projection; abdomen broad, with five ter- gites visible before the pointed hairy apex; fourth nearlyas long as first three together, second much shorter than first or third; sculpture minutely cancellate or reticulate, produciug a dullish surface, but first segment highly polished; hind margins of sec- ond and third segments shining; no rows of strong punctures; no trace of a dorsal carina; venter convex, polished, with deep median groove for ovipostor, which is only very slightly exsert- ed at apex.
Female. Length about 7 mm.; head in front obscure dull green, cheeks shining green; scape chestnut red, flagellum black, suffused with red about middle; thorax dorsally dull obscure greenish, but pronotum somewhat shining posteriorly, post- scutellurn brilliant purple, metathorax green with rosy patches, sides more brassy; hind cox= shining green, with a brassy luster; legs (except the green coxge) bright chestnut red; first abdominal segment highly polished, shining beautiful coppery red, second and third obscurely green, fourth very dark blue, fifth dark blue; venter shining. Stigma1 vein 255 microns long; postmarginal about 800, from its end to wing tip about 640. Compared with Ormyrodes Brues, it differs by not being coarsely punctured, nor the abdomen excessively elongate; also by the lack of a dorsal keel on abdomen and shorter marginal vein. From Monobaus Forster it differs by the sculpture of the abdomen, hairy eyes, and general appearance. In Ashmead's table it appears to fall closest to Monobceus, but it is certainly not congeneric with M. hegeli Girault, described from Michigan. I have not access to the descriptions of Forster's two species, but as Mayr referred them to Ormyrus, they are evidently quite different from the insect now described. In the Colorado fauna, this actually seems closest to the remarkable Ormyrodes petrefactus Brues, fossil in the Miocene of Florissant. May we suppose that for- merly this group of insects was more abundant, surviving today



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38 Psyche [April
in a few isolated and peculiar types, and the widespread and more prolific genus Ormyrus? Ormyrus, mainly parasitic in cyni- pid galls1 has about 45 species; Monobm has three, Triboeus one. Ormyrodes was based on a species from South Africa; the very similar fossil 0. petrefactus, from Florissant, is probably not truly congeneric.
Wot invariably, 0. sculptilis Crosby being from Asphondylia and Agro- myza.




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