A Chalcidoid Egg-parasite of an Australian Buprestid

Extract

In the course of a study of the biology of the Buprestid, Prospheres aurantiopictus, Cast., in Australia, Mr. A. R. Brimblecombe has obtained from the eggs an interesting small Chalcid belonging to the family Encyrtidae.

Several Encyrtid parasites of insect eggs are already known. In Australia Ovidencyrtus pallidipes, Girault, parasitises Reduviid eggs, Tetracnemella megymeni, Dodd, and T. hyalinipennis, Dodd, Pentatomid eggs, and Cheiloneurus viridiscutum, Girault, has been bred from those of cockroaches. In Hawaii the genera Ectopiognatha, Perkins, and Fulgoridicida, Perkins, are found parasitising the eggs of Homoptera. In addition Leefmansia bicolor, Waterston, has been bred from the eggs of the Orthopteron, Sexava sp., in Amboina and Leurocerus ovivorus, Crawford, from the moth, Amathusia phidippus, L., in Java. But most of the Encyrtid egg parasites belong to the genus Ooencyrtus, Ashmead, and it is among them that is placed the only other species known to breed in the eggs of a Coleopteron, Ooencyrtus batocerae, Ferrière, from Malaya. Another species, Tyndarichus rudnevi, Nowicky, is said to have been obtained from the eggs of Cerambyx cerdo, L., in Russia, but as the species of Tyndarichus are generally considered to be hyperparasites, the real parasite of this European Longicorn is still uncertain.