Chapter V: Introduction (3)

At first sight many of them might be taken for crane-flies of somewhat clumsy build; in the European _Panorpa_ the males are furnished with a peculiar anal appendage from which they take the popular name of Scorpion Flies. Members of the Genus _Boreus_ are wingless and resemble tiny grasshoppers; in America they are often found on snow. The family is represented in Australia by _Bittacus australis_, which has a wide range from Tasmania to Queensland, and is very abundant in the early summer, hanging about the leptospermum and ti-tree bushes. It rests among the foliage, with the large hind legs hanging loosely down below but ready to strike out the moment an incautious fly comes within range. The long flexible tarsi fold round the captive with the stout spines transfixing it, while the Bitticus draws its leg round under the head so that it can press its sharp beak into the victim and suck up its blood. Its general colour is reddish brown marked with black; the wings are clouded, narrow, rounded at the tips, and reticulated with fine nervures. Nothing is known about the earlier stages in the life-history of this insect, but specimens in captivity laid a number of flattened bun-shaped eggs which did not hatch out.

Family HEMEROBIIDAE.

1. _Nymphes myrmeleonides_ (Leach).
7. _Porismus strigatus_ (Burm.).

Family MYRMELEONIDAE.

2. _Glenurus erythrocephalus_ (Leach).
4. _Glenurus falsus_ (Walker).
5. _Glenurus circuiter_ (Walker).
6. _Glenurus pulchellus_ (Kirby).

Family MANTISPIDAE.

3. _Mantispa strigodes_ (Westwood).

(Original photo. Burton.)]

Family 6. Ant-lions and Lace-wings.

HEMEROBIIDAE.

This interesting division of the Neuroptera comprises a number of smaller groups, ranked by some entomologists as families, but now generally regarded as sub-families. Westwood divided them into two families, the first containing the true ant-lions; both Kirby and Sharp treat them as one, but the latter places them in seven well defined sub-families.

They come naturally together from the fact that all the larvae are provided with large, curved, hollow, sucking jaws, and are carnivorous in their habits, while the perfect insects have simple biting jaws. They all have, in the perfect state, long slender bodies, provided with two pairs of finely reticulated wings, folded over each other when at rest; the head is short, with large projecting eyes; ocelli generally wanting; and the antennae are composed of many short annular joints.

The MYRMELEONIDES are the true ant-lions, whose larvae in many species construct funnel shaped pits in soft sandy soil an inch or two in depth, at the bottom of which, buried in the loose soil, with only the tip of their large jaws visible, they lie in wait for any ant or other small insect that may happen to slip over the edge and tumble to the bottom, where it is immediately seized in the ant-lion’s powerful jaws and devoured; when however, as often happens, the trapped visitor manages to regain its footing and nearly succeeds in clambering out, the ant-lion presses its head downward like a spade and throws a quantity of sand right at its prey, generally bringing its quarry within reach again. It generally excavates its pit under the shelter of a log or rock so that it is protected from the rain, and when full grown pupates at the bottom of its shaft. The larva is a short thickset little brown creature covered with tufts of short stout bristles; the head is broad and rounded behind, attached to the heart-shaped body by a neck-like thorax. They are easily captured by slipping a knife blade under them and throwing them out when they are intent on catching a struggling ant. In captivity they are easily kept in a saucer full of sand, and have the power of going for weeks without food; when placed on a smooth surface they always arch their heads and crawl backwards.

Most of our described species belong to the Genus _Glenurus_, all slender elongated insects resting with their long narrow wings folded over their backs against a twig or grass stem, and when disturbed flitting away in a very awkward manner; they are very easily captured.

_Glenurus pulchellus_ is the commonest species about the coast, with a wing expanse of about 2½ inches; its general colour is chocolate brown, mottled and marbled with lighter tints; the fore wings are speckled with black; the apical portion of the hind pair deeply blotched with chestnut brown, encircling a white patch, with a second smaller one nearer the extremity. _Glenurus falsus_ is a shade smaller; the fore wings darker; and a single dark patch on the hind wings. _Glenurus striola_ is a slightly larger species with semitransparent wings, marked on the posterior margin of the hind pair with a narrow light brown stripe. I found this species very plentiful in some swampy flats near Brisbane, Q., in October, where they were resting on the rushes. _Glenurus fundatus_ is our largest species, often measuring up to 4 inches across the wings, and is of a general uniform mottled grey tint spotted with brown; it is common along the coast in North Queensland. _Glenurus circuiter_ is easily recognised from all the others by the shape of the fore wings, which are broadened to the tips, cut out behind at the extremities, and both pairs are irregularly blotched and spotted dark brown, giving it a very handsome appearance. _Glenurus erythrocephalus_ has semitransparent wings, elongate and rounded at the tips, the fore pair thickly covered with spots and blotches of dark brown, the hind pair usually only marked with three spots, but the spotting is very irregular and variable. It comes from the more northern parts of N.S. Wales and Queensland.

* * * * *

The ASCALAPHIDES are all moderate-sized, clear-winged insects with a stigma toward the tip, and curious long slender antennae clubbed at the tips; they might be likened to dragon-flies with butterflies’ heads. _Suphalasca sabulosa_ measures about 2½ inches across the wings; the head and thorax are fringed with fine hairs, the stigma on the wings black. It is generally found on bush land clinging to a grass stalk or twig, with the wings folded down, and the slender body sticking out at right angles. I have found the larvae living under the dry bark attached to dead tree trunks, their short hairy bodies covered with tufts of stout bristles, their large jaws pointing upward; and from their situation they probably capture the large sugar ants. In captivity they would remain for days resting against the side of the box without any movement, and lived for several months without taking any food, and finally formed a round cocoon.

The female places her eggs in a double row along the edge of a blade of grass, and the young ones, when they hatch out, sit in the bottom of the eggshell, all head and jaws, waiting for something to turn up, and must often undergo long fasts.

_Stibopteryx costalis_ is a stout bodied insect with a wing expanse of 3 inches, a large, dragon-fly-like head, and narrow rounded wings banded with parallel bands of chocolate brown. It ranges from Sydney right round Australia.

The NEMOPTERIDES are a very curious group of lace-wings, which have the hind pair of wings produced into slender or clubbed appendages of most peculiar form. Kirby (Annals and Magazine of Natural History 1900) has listed all the known species from all parts of the world, 33 species in 7 genera.

_Chasmoptera hutti_, described by Westwood from Western Australia, has a wing expanse of 1½ inches, and the hind pair are produced into a spoon-shaped tail. _Croce attenuata_ is a smaller, dull coloured, brown insect, with the fore wings like those of a mayfly, and the hind pair forming a pair of antennae-like processes longer than the body. It was taken by my correspondent, Mrs. Black, round a lamp, and comes from North Queensland. It is described by me in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society 1904.

The MANTISPIDES are lace-wings that in general form, imitate the orthopterous mantis; with the same elongate neck, spined fore legs and broad head, but the structure of the wings soon shows its affinity to the lace-wings. We have some very fine species in Australia, which are usually found hiding among the foliage of trees, and are generally captured when beating the bush for beetles. Nothing is known about the earlier stages of any of our species, but Brauer studied the larval and pupal forms of the European _Mantispa_, and found that the eggs were stalked; the larvae are long slender creatures with large jaws. Westwood has figured and described a number of our species (Trans. Ent. Soc. 1852).

_Mantispa biseriata_, one of our largest species, measures up to 2½ inches across the outspread wings. Its general colour is dull reddish brown; the wings are mottled with very fine black dots, and the stigma on the fore wing forms a dull red blotch. It has a wide range from Victoria to North Queensland. _Mantispa strigipes_ is a smaller darker species, with no distinct stigma but a stripe of dull red along the front margin of both pairs of wings, thickest toward the extremities. It ranges over Victoria and N.S. Wales.

The HEMEROBIIDES are well represented in Australia by some very beautiful insects, which when at rest are recognised by the way in which their wings are folded against each other, forming a ridge above the back; the antennae, generally long, consist of a number of short annular joints. The eggs are laid upon the food plant; the larvae feed upon small insects.

(Pro. Linn. Soc. N.S.W.)]

_Nymphes myrmeleonides_, described and figured by Leach in 1814, has a somewhat robust body, long slender antennae and narrow head; the wings, which have an expanse of 3 inches, are large, of equal size, and semitransparent, except the tips, which are ornamented with an elongate brownish blotch enclosing an irregular white spot in the centre. It is a very ungainly insect when flying, with its large oar-shaped shining wings; it has a very wide range along the eastern coast. The larvae live under the shelter of logs hiding among the dust and dirt with only their jaws projecting; specimens obtained near Armidale, N.S.W., lived for some time in captivity, forming the usual spherical parchment-like pupal case, from which the insect emerged about a month later.

=Fig. 33.=--_Psychopsis illidgi_ (Froggatt). The
Painted Lace-wing.

(Pro. Linn. Soc. N.S.W.)]

=Fig. 34.=--_Psychopsis coelevagus_ (Walker). The
small Metallic Lace-wing.

(Pro. Linn. Soc. N.S.W.)]

The Genus _Psychopsis_ was formed by Newman in 1840 (Newman’s Entomologist p. 415) to contain the curious creamy white moth-like insect _Psychopsis mimica_. It has broad rounded wings covered with fine hairy veins shading from buff to grey or creamy white, spotted with red on the base of the fore wings and a dull brown spot on the centre of the hind pair; the head is turned down in front when resting. It measures about 1½ inches across the outspread wings and is found from South Australia to Queensland. I figured and described all our known species (Notes on the Genus Psychopsis Newman, with descriptions of new species) in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society N.S.W. 1903, where I added two new species. _Psychopsis coelivagus_ is our smallest species, measuring 1 inch across the outspread wings, which are creamy white thickly mottled with a central band of metallic coppery brown; it comes from S. Queensland.

_Psychopsis illidgi_ is one of the most remarkable looking of all our Neuroptera, with its large rounded buff fore wings with confluent ochreous yellow markings crossing them, and the usual dull spot in the centre of the smaller hind wings. It measures about 2¾ inches across the wings, and is a rare insect. Illidge has taken several specimens that came flying in to the light at night on the top of Mount Tambourina in South Queensland.

=Fig. 35.=--Larva of _Psychopsis mimica_ (Newman).
Bred from the egg (much enlarged). (Original W.W.F.)]

_Psychopsis insolens_ and _P. meyricki_ are both dull coloured smaller insects, the first found about Sydney and Brisbane, the latter on the top of Mount Kosciusko, resting on the rocks.

The eggs are not stalked but are attached to the food plant; the young elongated larva, furnished with stout projecting jaws, crawls upon the foliage and feeds upon aphids. This Genus was considered peculiar to Australia, until in the last few years two species have been described from Africa and a third from Burmah.

The curious black mottled lace-wing, _Porismus strigatus_, has a narrow red head furnished with long slender antennae and large rounded eyes; the front portion of the thorax forms a regular neck. The narrow elongate black wings, blotched and tipped with pale yellow shading into white, are folded over the back forming a ridge when at rest on a tree trunk. They are sometimes met with about Sydney, and are common in New England toward the end of summer. I found larvae and eggs under logs in that district which I believe to be those of this insect; the former were stalked and deposited in a narrow semicircle attached to each other; the larvae, of the usual tick-shaped form, covered themselves over with bits of burnt ashes, and clung to the surface of the log, where they easily escaped notice with their protective covering.

=Fig. 36.=--Larva of _Porismus strigatus_ (Bohem).
The adult Lace-wing is shown in Plate VI., Fig. 7.

(Original W.W.F.)]

The Genus _Osmylus_ contains a number of slender insects with longer, semitransparent, spotted, brown wings, and fine antennae clothed with short hairs. The larvae, active little creatures, feed about among the leaves destroying aphids. _Osmylus tenui_ measures about 1¼ inches across the outspread wings, is of the usual dull brown tint, and is found in Victoria.

In the Genus _Drepanopteryx_ the fore wings are short, broad, rounded in front at the shoulders, and arcuate on the hind margin; the hind pair are rounded, semitransparent, with a darker costal margin; when resting upon a twig they tuck the head down under the thorax, and turn the wings upward, almost standing on their heads; they could be easily passed over from their resemblance to a brown leaf.

_Drepanopteryx binocula_ and _D. instabilis_ are found in N.S. Wales and Victoria; the first has dark fore wings and measures about ¾ of an inch; the second is somewhat smaller and lighter coloured.

Fig. 38.

=Figs. 37 and 38.=--Life History of the Brown Lace-wing.

37.--_Micromus Australis_ (Froggatt).

38.--Larva.

(“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)]

The CHRYSOPHIDES comprise the lace wings known as “Ruby Eyes” from their rich metallic tint, or “Aphis Lions” on account of the voracious habits of their larvae. They hide among the foliage in the day time, and in summer often come buzzing round the lamp, several species giving out a most objectionable smell when handled. They are generally slender-bodied green or yellow insects with large delicate glassy wings, folded over the back. They attach their eggs to the foliage on long slender stalks, probably a means of protection against other larvae that might otherwise find and devour them. The larvae are active little creatures with large heads furnished with scythe-shaped jaws; their rounded backs are covered with short stiff hairs, by means of which they hold bits of dirt, sand, or wood, with which they cover themselves when feeding upon the aphids or scale. If when in captivity these bits are brushed off they run round and replace them bit by bit; pushing the bits into the jaws with their fore legs, then turning their heads backward, they drop each bit upon their backs, repeating the operation until they are again completely covered. When full-grown they spin a white hemispherical cocoon composed of fine white threads and the longer hairs of the body, from which in summer the perfect insects will emerge in a fortnight.

(“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)]

Larva; stalked egg; and pupa enclosed in hemispherical cocoon
covered with the remains of the aphis upon which it has fed
during the larval stage.]

The Green Lace Wing, _Chrysopa ramburi_, is our common orchard friend; and where plentiful they soon clean the trees of aphid and scale insects. Its general colour is bright green fading into yellow after death; the large golden eyes are so bright that they can be seen through the cocoon some time before it emerges. The Brown Lace Wing, _Micromus australis_, is common among dead bushes, and also in summer in orange orchards; it is much smaller than the last, only slightly over ¼ of an inch across the expanded wings; is of a general light brown colour mottled all over the wings with darker tints. The broad head is furnished with large bronzy eyes, and slender hairy antennae composed of 44 very short annular joints. Both the slender, brown, ferret-like larvae and the perfect insects are very active little creatures, always on the move. This species was described by me in the Agricultural Gazette N.S. Wales, 1904.

Family 7. Caddis Flies.

TRICHOPTERA.

The larval forms of these interesting little creatures are common in our creeks and water-holes, encased in their cocoons or sacks formed of silken strands covered with bits of sticks, leaves, sand or small stones; they may be often noticed floating on the surface or crawling about under the water among the weeds and mud. These are protective coverings, for though the head and front of the thorax, that are projected in front when the larva is moving along, are hard and leathery, the abdominal segments are covered with a thin integument, and would soon fall a prey to the many carnivorous water insects in the ponds if it were not for their case-bearing habits. These cases, unlike those of the terrestrial case moths, are open at both ends, so that the water can flow right through when the creature is crawling about.

They are known in England as “water moths,” or “caddis-flies,” and are much sought for by anglers as bait for fly-fishing. The perfect insects have two pairs of membranous wings with fewer cross veins than other members of the Neuroptera; the hind pair are broadest and folded when at rest; most of them are clothed with fine hairs instead of scales. The head is small, with very long, slender, thread-like antennae composed of many short indistinct joints, and the biting mouth is rudimentary; the prothorax is short, with an elongate body rounded at the extremity; and the legs are well developed, and more or less provided with spines. The female deposits her eggs, enveloped in a gelatinous mass, in the water, often carrying them about with her attached to the tip of the abdomen for some time before they are dropped.

Some of the smaller species are so wonderfully like small tinead moths, that it takes an experienced eye, aided with a good lens, to pick them out of a box when mixed up with small microlepidoptera; and from their delicate form and small size most of my specimens have not been taken as caddis-flies, but obtained from the leavings of insect boxes of moth collectors.

Between the years 1874–80 McLachlan published his fine “Monograph of the European Trichoptera,” illustrated with a great number of very fine drawings; over 500 species are identified and described in this work. According to Howard, about 150 species have been described from North America.

McLachlan treats them as an Order in his work, dividing them into a number of families, chiefly based upon the number of spines on the legs, the joints of the palpi, and the ocelli.

Judging from my own collection of caddis-flies I should think that Australia is rich in species, but they are a much neglected family and I do not know of a single named specimen in any of our Museum collections.

In the British Museum Catalogue of Neuroptera published in 1852, Walker gives only four species from Tasmania and Australia: _Leptocerus magnus_ and _L. oppositus_, which he describes from Tasmania, and _Plectrotarsus gravenhorsti_, described by Koller from Australia; the latter measures nearly an inch across the wings, and ⅓ of an inch in the body, and is of a general yellow tint, thickly clothed with yellow and black hairs; the fore wings are bluish black marked with white, yellow at the base and along the fore border; the hind wings are yellow but blackish toward the tips.

_Monopseudopsis inscriptus_, described by Walker, is a larger fly, of a general black colour, with pale wings spotted with yellow, the hind pair clouded. The locality of this species is given as Australia.

Order IV.--HYMENOPTERA.

Bees, Ants and Wasps.

This division contains an immense number of very interesting insects which, though generally known as bees, ants, and wasps, comprise many other just as important families; some are unfortunately popularly called flies, such as saw-flies, gall-flies, and ichneumon-flies, but all true flies have only one pair of wings. Hymenoptera are, with a few exceptions, furnished with two pairs of semitransparent membranous wings, sometimes shaded with black or yellow tints, devoid of hairs or scales, but traversed by stout nervures forming irregular cells; the hind pair are the smaller, and are furnished with a row of spines along the front margin capable of hooking into the hind edge of the fore pair, thus adding to their powers of flight.

_a_, eyes; _b_, clypeus; _c_, labrum;
_d_, mandibles; _e_, ocelli; _f_, insertion of
the antennae.

(Redrawn from Cresson’s “Hymenoptera of North America.”)]

_a_, prothorax; _b_, mesothorax; _c_,
scutellum; _d_, postscutellum; _e_, metathorax;
_f_, tegulae; _g_, parapsidal grooves.

(Cresson’s “Hymenoptera of N. America.”)]

In a few anomalous groups we find the females wingless, such as _Thynnidae_, _Mutillidae_ and others; in some like the fig insects _Blastophaginae_, the males are wingless and blind; in the ants, while the males and females are winged, the bulk of the community consists of wingless workers forming a third sex or caste.

1, Costal cell; 2, median or externo-medial cell; 3,
sub-median cell; 4, anal cell; 5, marginal or radial cell;
6, first sub-marginal or cubital cell; 7, second s.-m. or
cubital cell; 8, third s.-m. or cubital cell; 9, fourth s.-m.
or cubital cell; 10, first discoidal cell; 11, second d.
cell; 12, third d. cell; 13, first apical cell; 14, second
a. cell. _a_, Costal nervure; _b_, sub-costal
nervure; _c_, externo-medial nervure; _d_, anal
nervure; _e_, marginal or radial nervure; _f_,
basal nervure; _g_, first transverso-cubital nervure;
_h_, second t.-c. nervure; _i_, third t.-c.
nervure; _j_, transverso-medial nervure; _k_,
discoidal nervure; _l_, cubital nervure; _m_,
first recurrent nervure; _n_, second r. nervure;
_o_, sub-discoidal nervure; _p_, stigma; _q_,
posterior margin; _r_, apical margin. (Cresson, “Hym. N.
America.”)]

These insects are furnished with well developed antennae; large compound eyes, in some groups composed of an immense number of facets; usually 3 simple eyes or ocelli, but these are sometimes wanting; a more or less tubular mouth adapted for sucking up food (commonly called the proboscis), though mandibles are always present. The thorax is stout and broad; the three primary portions, prothorax, mesothorax and metathorax, are distinct on the upper surface with well defined lateral or ventral plates. The legs are generally large, with spined tibiae, and slender tarsi terminating in a double claw or hook, but varying much in size and shape in the different families. The abdomen takes all kinds of remarkable forms, from the thickened sessile body of the sawfly to the slender stalked abdomen of the sand-wasp, and the female is furnished with an ovipositor, sting, or saw at the extremity.

The Hymenoptera are considered by naturalists to be one of the most highly developed or specialised orders of insects, on account of the social habits of some of the chief families, and the care they display in providing for the safety and food supplies of their larvae.

They undergo a complete metamorphosis: from the egg is hatched out a soft, generally legless larva which when full grown, if in a protected cell, is simply enveloped in a thin skin, but otherwise forms a stout silken or parchment-like cocoon; the larva usually takes a considerable time to change into the pupa; the change is not rapid as that of a butterfly.

Australia is very rich in hymenoptera; most of the typical families are well represented, and we also have a few very distinct groups peculiar to this country.

There have been many schemes of classification and sub-divisions of these insects proposed by various authors, and the present idea among specialists seems to tend to a still closer definition of the families, as exemplified in Ashmead’s recent Classification running through the pages of the Canadian Entomologist; but in a book of this kind, I can only deal with the most important divisions and refer my readers to the work of such specialists.

Westwood divided the first section, _Terebranti_, in which the females are provided with a more or less projecting instrument for depositing their eggs, into two sub-sections, _Phytiphaga_, in which the abdomen is sessile, and _Entomophaga_, in which the body is stalked. Some of the French entomologists had previously suggested dividing them up into five large families defined by the peculiarities of the ovipositor or borer. Kirby used the same terms as Westwood, but I have followed Sharp, who uses the names _Sessiliventres_ instead of the first, and _Petioliventres_ for the second, for they certainly express more clearly the form of the body of the groups under observation. The first group contains four families.

Family 1. Stem-Sawflies.

CEPHIDAE.

The first group comprises what Sharp terms “Stem-Sawflies,” which are not represented in Australia. They are slender little insects with long antennae; the larvae feed in the stems of plants; one damages wheat stems in Europe, another infests willows in America, a third is recorded from Japan; but they are unknown in Australia.

Family TENTHREDINIDAE.

1. _Phylacteophaga eucalypti_ (Froggatt).
2. _Phylacteophaga eucalypti_ (Froggatt), Larva.
3. _Perga dorsalis_ (Leach).
4. _Perga dorsalis_ (Leach), Larva.
5. _Perga lewisii_ (Westwood).]

Family 2.

ORYSSIDAE.

This family consists of the single Genus _Oryssus_, of which only 20 species are known. They are remarkable for the curious situation of the antennae on the under-surface of the head, the cylindrical rounded abdomen, and the exposed needle-like ovipositor. Turner has described one from Mackay, Queensland, in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society N.S.W. under the name of _Oryssus queenslandicus_. It is a small black insect measuring ½ an inch in length; with mottled brown wings, and typical shape of the genus.

Family 3.

SIRICIDAE.

These handsome Sawflies are common in Europe and America, the larvae living in timber; the members of the typical Genus _Sirex_ have long cylindrical bodies rounded to the apex; the borer of the female extends beyond the tip of the abdomen. One species, _Sirex australis_, has been described from Australia by Kirby (List of Hymenoptera 1882). I have never heard of another specimen being found, and believe the type is unique.

Family 4. Sawflies.

TENTHREDINIDAE.

These are the typical stoutly built Sawflies, with the pronotum narrow, and the thorax generally broader than the head; the abdomen sessile, and provided in the female with a beautiful saw-like instrument on the under-surface of the tip of the abdomen, with which she slits the leaves to deposit her eggs in the tissue. The larvae are caterpillar-like creatures usually furnished with three pairs of legs; they feed upon the foliage of many plants.

Our species all belong to genera peculiar to Australia: Klug described several in the Berlin Magazin in 1814; Leach figured and described others in his “Zoological Miscellanies 1817”; Westwood described and figured a number in an important paper in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society 1880, others in his “Arcana Entomologica 1841”; and Kirby added to them in his List of Hymenoptera, B.M. Catalogue 1882.

The Genus _Perga_ contains about 50 of our largest Sawflies, broad thickset insects, with reddish or light brown opaque wings, and short antennae forming an elongate club at the extremity. The larva is black or brown clothed with short scattered shining bristles, black head, three pairs of short stout legs, broad thorax, and abdomen tapering to a rounded tip. They feed gregariously upon the foliage of eucalypts, often stripping off all the leaves of the young bushes; they rest in the day time clustered together in a bunch of 50 or more round a branch, holding on with the legs; when disturbed they raise and rap the tip of the abdomen against the leaves, at the same time discharging a sticky yellow fluid from the mouth smelling strongly of eucalyptus extract. They are very subject to the attacks of dipterous and hymenopterous parasites, which these means of defence may keep away. When full grown they bury themselves in the soil, and form elongate, oval, parchment-like cocoons clustered together.

The Steel Blue Sawfly, _Perga dorsalis_, is slightly over 1 inch in length; is of a deep metallic blue, marked on face and thorax with bright yellow, and has stout reddish brown wings; the smaller male has the upper surface of the abdominal segments clothed with silvery pubescence. _Perga kirbyi_ is dark reddish brown, similar in form and size to the last species; _Perga lewisii_, a much smaller yellowish brown insect, flattened on the dorsal surface, is common about Sydney upon the foliage of the “blood-wood” (_Eucalyptus corymbosa_), where she lays her eggs in the leaf in a double row, and stands over them until the tiny larvae hatch out and are able to move away; while thus occupied you can pick her up, but she will not move away, but raise her wings and fight like a hen over her chickens. Though this is our commonest species, and I have taken hundreds of females, I have never seen a male. _Perga cameronii_ is like the last species, but larger, with more distinct markings on the back; it is found on the Blue Mountains.

In the Genus _Pterygophorus_ about 10 species are described; they are much smaller insects, with bright metallic blue colours marked with reddish yellow; the male has the antennae produced into a comb or feathery structure, those of the female are formed of short rounded joints. The larva is a dull olive green creature covered with small warty tubercules; the head is broad, and the abdomen tapers off into a slender pointed tail; it has seven pairs of abdominal legs. It feeds upon the foliage of _Leptospermum_, wild dock and other plants, and when full grown bores into dead wood, pupating in a rounded oval cell.

The Ringed Sawfly, _Pterygophorus cinctus_, ½ an inch in length, is dark blue marked with deep reddish orange on the thorax, with a ring round the centre and tip of the abdomen of a similar colour; the wings are marked and clouded with black.

Family TENTHREDINIDAE.

1. _Pterygophorus cinctus_ (Klug).
2. _Pterygophorus cinctus_ (Klug), Antenna ♀.
3. _Pterygophorus cinctus_ (Klug), Larva.
4. _Philomastix glaber_ (Froggatt).
5. _Philomastix glaber_ (Froggatt), Antenna.
6. _Philomastix glaber_ (Froggatt), Larva.]

The Pale Coloured Sawfly, _P. interruptus_, slightly larger, has the thorax marked with orange yellow, and the abdomen deeply blotched with the same colour, forming interrupted bands on the sides; both these species are taken upon flowers in the summer months.

_Philomastix glaber_ has very curious larvae that feed upon the wild bramble on the northern rivers of N.S. Wales; they have large heads, no abdominal legs, and two slender rat-like tails on the tip of the body. The sawfly measures 1 inch in length; the general colour is shining yellow, mottled with dull metallic blue on the thorax and abdomen; the semiopaque wings are barred with dark brown; the male has shorter antennae composed of short funnel shaped segments. There are a number of small species, belonging to the Genera _Eurys_, _Euryopsis_ and _Polyclonus_, found chiefly upon flowers; _Polyclonus atratus_, sole representative of the Genus, has 18 jointed antennae, each joint furnished with a hairy finger turning inward at the tips. The Blister-leaf Sawfly, _Phylacteophaga eucalypti_, punctures the leaves of small gum trees; the larva feeds in the tissue, and when full grown pupates in a chamber in the centre, forming a distinct blister in the leaf: in the pupal state it has power to bend the body and rap against the side of the chamber. The sawfly measures ¼ of an inch in length; the male is black with a red head; the slightly larger female has the head and thorax reddish brown; the antennae have eight joints, long and slender. They have long stout legs, and are very active when they first emerge from the leaves, making a loud buzzing sound as they run about and try to escape.

Family 5. Gall-flies.

CYNIPIDAE.

This is the first group of the _Petiolata_, which are often known from their small size as _Micro-hymenoptera_. They are all small creatures, differing from the succeeding families in that they are broadly speaking plant eating, usually forming galls in which they live and pupate. However, there are some that live upon the gall-making forms; others live only upon the tissue of their cousins’ galls without disturbing their host; and again some that are known as inqualines (visitors that dwell in the cavity with the true gall-maker); so that their life histories are somewhat complicated.

The typical gall-fly deposits her eggs in the tissues of the selected plant by means of her ovipositor, which is beautifully adapted for the purpose; she injects in some cases a fluid that keeps the wound from closing up at once and so destroying the delicate egg. Most of the Cynips galls are rounded woody excrescences. The Gall Wasps have wings with few cells and no stigma; the front portion of the thorax is joined to the second; the ovipositor is concealed; the antennae straight, containing from 13 to 15 joints. I described three hymenopterons forming galls on wattles (Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 1892), but these insects submitted to Dr. Mayr some years afterwards proved to belong to another family. The only species described from Australia are 3 named by Ashmead (Pro. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 1900), which were collected by Koebele without any exact locality being given; and _Hypodiranchis aphidis_ described by me as a parasite of the common peach aphis in the Agricultural Gazette N.S.W. 1904.

Family 6. Parasitic Wasps.

CHALCIDIDAE.

This is a very extensive family, the members of which differ from the other small wasps in having the antennae elbowed, the first segment often as long as all the others combined; the antennae may be simple, but are often clubbed at the tips, and in the males of some groups with the segments or joints feathered or furnished with slender branching fingers. The delicate gauze-like wings are traversed by very few veins, and the abdomen is produced into all sorts of curious shapes, ornamented sometimes with remarkable anal appendages; and the ovipositor of the female, though often short, is sometimes much longer than the whole insect, and is usually prominent. These tiny little creatures deposit their eggs in the eggs, larvae, and pupae of other insects, wood galls, and excrescences produced by other insects, though a few groups are plant feeders and even produce galls.

Most of them are very minute, and can only be collected by keeping infested galls, leaves, eggs and cocoons in jars and breeding them out, so that the majority of them escape the eye of the ordinary collector, though among the most beautiful of all insects in rich colours and delicate structure.

Walker described a number of Australian species in the British Museum Catalogue, Hymenoptera 1846, others in his Monograph of the family 1839, and the Proceedings of other Journals (1863, &c.); but his usual locality is simply “New Holland,” and without access to the types one would have some difficulty in determining any species. Westwood obtained and figured some of our largest; and Haliday others in the “Entomologist” 1842; while the few others described are those obtained by the zoologists on the various scientific expeditions visiting this country. Ashmead has contributed the only modern paper (Pro. Linn. Society N.S.W. 1900) on these and other parasitic hymenoptera collected by Mr. Koebele and myself. The species in the Genus _Leucaspis_ are large thickset chalcids, with the ovipositor curving round and fitting into grooves in the dorsal surface of the abdomen. _Leucaspis darlingi_ was obtained by Westwood from the Darling Downs Queensland (I have specimens from Mackay Q.): it is black mottled with yellow, and has brownish wings; the hind legs are swollen: the antennae thickened; and it measures ½ an inch. _L. australis_ was obtained by Walker from S. Australia. Nothing is known about their habits, but _Leucaspis gigas_ in Europe lays its eggs in the nests of mud-dauber wasps, piercing the clay walls with its stout ovipositor. _Trichoxenia cineraria_, a slightly smaller black insect, is deeply punctured all over the dorsal surface of the head and thorax; the wings are clouded at the apex; and the upper surface of the body is thickly clothed with dense yellow down, thickest toward the apex. Specimens in my collection were taken about Sydney.

The typical Genus _Chalcis_ contains a number of short stout insects, generally black, sometimes marked with yellow and brown; they are easily distinguished by the globular form of the thighs of the hind legs, which are sometimes nearly as large as the abdomen. These insects are chiefly parasitic upon the larvae of small leaf-rolling moths: _Chalcis vicaria_ is black, with the base of the tibiae and tarsi yellow; it is common about Mackay Queensland. I have bred numbers of _Chalcis phya_, a small black species with white mottled hind legs, from the chrysalids of the lucerne moth (_Tortrix glaphyriana_). Another undetermined yellow legged species has been bred from the codlin moth pupa. _Eurytoma binotata_, a tiny black insect clothed with a white pubescence, has the pronotum spotted with yellow, and the antennae and legs marked with reddish brown; it can be bred from the galls on the twigs of the turpentine gum. _E. eucalypti_, a smaller black species, slightly over ⅛ of an inch, comes out of eucalyptus galls collected at Uralla N.S.W. The members of the extensive Genus _Megastigmus_ are all obtained from galls; they are more elongate in form, with broad globular heads, the males with short cylindrical bodies, but the larger females furnished with bristle-like ovipositors turning upward often longer than the whole insect. _Megastigmus brachyscelides_ measures ¹⁄₁₂ of an inch, and is black to dark brown marked with yellow; it is bred from the large galls of _Brachyscelis crispa_. _M. iamenus_, originally described from Tasmania, I have bred from another gall coccid (_B. pileata_); also a larger light yellow species bred from dipterous galls on the Snow-bush (_Aster ramulosus_) has been named by Ashmead _M. asteri_; _M. brachychitoni_, ⅙ of an inch, reddish brown and yellow, is common in the large fleshy galls on the Kurrajong tree.

(“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)]

_Stilbula peduncularis_ is a remarkable looking insect, with broad, rich metallic coppery red head and thorax; the basal portion of the abdomen forms a slender stalk with the apical tip produced into a small oval club. I have had a closely allied form out of the pupal cocoon of the red bull-dog ant.

The PERILAMPINAE comprise some of the largest and most remarkable chalcids: _Thaumasura terebrator_ has been described and figured by Westwood; my specimens came from S. Australia, and were sent by Mr. Blackburn. It is a slender, rich metallic purple insect, about ¼ of an inch in length to the apex of the flask-shaped body, which is continued in a long jointed tail three times the length of the whole insect. _T. femor-rubra_ is a smaller insect with a tail not so long as the body, and of a general black colour with transparent wings and reddish legs. _Dinoura auriventris_ is a very curious, metallic tinted species ¼ of an inch in length, with the apical portion of the attenuated abdomen produced into four flanges. I have bred a number of these wasps out of the large wood galls of coccids (_Brachyscelinae_), chiefly _B. pileata_. _Pteromalus puparum_ is an introduced parasite of butterfly pupae, and is common about Sydney, where it infests that of the orange feeding butterfly (_Papilio erectheus_). Another tiny little metallic tinted chalcid, _Eupelmus antipoda_, infests the eggs of our common mantis.

Parasitic Chalcids that destroy the pupae of many species of
butterflies.

(“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)]

About twenty species of the cosmopolitan Genus _Tetrasticus_ are described by Walker, chiefly from Tasmania. The allied _Tetrastichodes froggatti_ is a very tiny creature, described by Ashmead from shot-like galls on the leaves of eucalypts. _Euryischia lestophoni_, a larger black insect with mottled wings, is interesting to economic entomologists, as it is a secondary parasite of the Cottony Cushion Scale (_Icerya purchasi_), feeding on the fly parasite.

* * * * *

The BLASTOPHAGINAE are remarkable little creatures, for there is a very great difference in the sexes of the same species; the males, yellow or brown, wingless, and blind, are more like white ants in general appearance than chalcids. They breed in the interior of figs, and are numerous in Australia. Saunders (Trans. Ent. Soc. 1883) described our common species (_Pleistodontes imperialis_), found in the fruit of the Moreton Bay fig about March. The tiny male, ¹⁄₁₂ of an inch in length, is of the typical form and colour; the elongate, shining black female (which is figured) is so different a looking creature that it would never be taken for the opposite sex of the insect. Their life history and remarkable habits have been described in the Agricultural Gazette (June 1900). _Idarnis australis_, described in the same paper, is a slender, bright, metallic green wasp, with a long tubular ovipositor nearly twice the length of the whole insect, which she also uses by pressing it down against the fig to jump like an acrobat, as well as for puncturing the skin of the fruit. The insect I described as the supplementary male of _P. imperialis_, is, Dr. Mayr tells me, the wingless male of this species. Mayr in “_Neue Feigen-Insekten_ 1906” states that he finds that my identification is wrong and this is not the one named by Saunders but a new species which he calls _Pleistodontes froggatti_, and places my _Idarnis_ in his Genus _Sycoryctes_.

A parasitic Chalcid that destroys the gall-making coccids
(_Brachyscelinae_) by devouring the females and pupating
in the cavity. (Original, W.W.F.)]

Family CHALCIDIDAE.

1. Branch of Moreton Bay Fig (_Ficus macrophylla_).

2. Immature fig attacked by _Pleistodontes froggatti_
(Mayr), which are cutting their way into the fig. A female
_Idarnis australis_ on the right-hand side of the fig.

3. Section of fig, showing insects in the centre.

4. _Pleistodontes froggatti_ (Mayr). ♀.

5. Cutting plate (mandibular appendage) used by the insect to
cut into the fig.

6. Point of head, showing beak-like extremity, and the base of
the mandibular appendage where attached to the head.

7. Wings of _Pleistodontes froggatti_ (Mayr).

8. _Pleistodontes froggatti_ (Mayr). ♂.

9. _Idarnes australis_ (Froggatt). ♂.

10. _Idarnes australis_ (Froggatt). ♀.

11. _Idarnes australis_ (Froggatt), Wings.]

* * * * *

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.

=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.)]

=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.

(“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)]

Family 7. Micro-hymenoptera.

PROCTOTRYPIDAE.

In general appearance these tiny creatures, some of the smallest in the insect world, would seem to be almost identical with those of the previous family; but Ashmead says: “If the anomalous group MYMARINAE are removed there will be no difficulty in distinguishing at a glance a Proctotrypid from a Chalcid,” and defines them thus: “In all true Proctotrypidae the pronotum extends back to the tegulae, and the ovipositor issues from the tip of the abdomen, the sheaths in a few abnormal cases being conjoined and forming a more or less cylindrical tube or scabbard for the reception of the two spiculae and the ovipositor proper.”

Sharp on the other hand considers that this is one of the most difficult groups of the Hymenoptera to define; to a specialist of course they can be easily separated, but anyone who first takes up the study of these Micro-hymenoptera (and bear in mind that we are talking about insects, so small that when a collector breeds them out in jars he has to liberate them upon a window pane that he may see them against the light), he will I think endorse Dr. Sharp’s decision. Besides the peculiarities of the abdomen previously noted, the antennae, sometimes twice the length of the whole insect, are composed of from 7 to 15 joints, and in the typical groups, though the first joint may be long, it is not elbowed as in the Chalcids, and is seldom branched. The wings are delicate, without any nervures, except in a few small groups where the veins are somewhat like those of small ichneumon wasps. The hind legs are generally longer than the others, and though some have the thighs swollen as in the Chalcids, they are as a rule much more slender, and the abdomen is usually pointed.

They can be bred from galls, particularly those of small Gall-flies (_Cecidomyia_), the eggs of all kinds of insects, and the larvae of small beetles, moths, and other wasps.

In Ashmead’s “Monograph of the Proctotrypidae of North America” nearly 600 species are described, and a number have been added since these were recorded in 1893. The Australian species are probably numerous, judging from my own observations when studying gall-making insects; but very few have been described. Westwood described four in his “Thesaurus Entomologicus, Oxford 1874,” belonging to the BETHYLLIDES, the peculiarities of which he defines, and figures with coloured plates. Ashmead describes another (Pro. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 1900) under the name of _Ateleopterus longiceps_, obtained by me in a hollow twig of a wattle tree; a shining black ant-like creature about ⅙ of an inch in length, rusty red legs, and transparent wings clouded at the base, probably parasitic on the larva of some wood boring beetle. _Sierola antipoda_ was bred from the curious bract-like gall of _Cecidomyia frauenfeldi_ on the twigs of Melaleuca bushes. A second species of this genus was collected by Webster, and forwarded to Ashmead, who named it after the sender.

In 1890 Riley described “An Australian Hymenopterous parasite of the fluted scale” in “Insect Life” which he named _Ophelosia crawfordi_; it is a tiny reddish brown wasp with a shining black body, and the wings obscurely barred with smoky brown; it is easily bred from this mealy bug, which it greatly keeps in check. _Goniozus antipodum_, described by Westwood from S. Australia, is a little shining black ant-like wasp which has been lately discovered destroying the grubs of codlin moth both in S. Australia and N.S. Wales. The larvae feed upon the outside of the grub, burying their heads in the tissue, and when full grown spin a loose silken cocoon.

* * * * *

Perkins has recently added a number of new species to this family belonging to the DRYINIDAE. In his Bulletins Hawaii 1905, Nos. 1 & 10, “Leaf Hoppers and their Natural Enemies,” he describes 45 new species, chiefly collected by Koebele in Queensland, but some from the neighbourhood of Sydney. These curious little proctotrypids are parasitic upon the larvae and pupae of the small homopterous insects commonly known as Leaf or Frog-hoppers (Families JASSIDAE and FULGORIDAE). The adult wasp captures the insect, holding it with its curious clawed feet while it deposits its egg in its body; when full grown the larva spins a white silken cocoon, from which the active winged insect emerges in about 18 days.

* * * * *

_Gonotopus australis_ is a tiny wingless ant-like creature about ¹⁄₁₂ of an inch in length, which attacks jassids and fulgorids feeding upon grass and low herbage. This species comes from Bundaberg Queensland; but Koebele has bred a second species about ⅛ of an inch in length, of a general brownish colour, from a Jassid collected near Parramatta. The curious little sacs or larval bags of these parasites can be readily noticed projecting from the sides of the thoracic segments. Most of these insects have well developed wings, but, according to Koebele’s observations, they stalk their prey when looking for the host for their egg.

Family 8. Larger Parasitic Wasps.

ICHNEUMONIDAE.