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.
[Illustration: Plate X.--HYMENOPTERA.
Family TENTHREDINIDAE.
1. _Phylacteophaga eucalypti_ (Froggatt).
2. _Phylacteophaga eucalypti_ (Froggatt), Larva.
3. _Perga dorsalis_ (Leach).
4. _Perga dorsalis_ (Leach), Larva.
5. _Perga lewisii_ (Westwood).]
[Illustration: _Plate X.--HYMENOPTERA._]
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.
[Illustration: Plate XI.--HYMENOPTERA.
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.]
[Illustration: _Plate XI.--HYMENOPTERA._]
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.
[Illustration: =Fig. 44.=--_Hypodiranchis aphidis_
(Froggatt). A cynips parasitic upon the peach aphis.
(“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.
[Illustration: =Fig. 45.=--_Pteromalus puparum_
(Linn.). ♂ and ♀.
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_.
[Illustration: =Fig. 46.=--_Dinoura auriventris_
(Ashmead).
A parasitic Chalcid that destroys the gall-making coccids
(_Brachyscelinae_) by devouring the females and pupating
in the cavity. (Original, W.W.F.)]
[Illustration: Plate XII.--HYMENOPTERA.
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.]
[Illustration: _Plate XII.--HYMENOPTERA._]
* * * * *
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.
[Illustration:
=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.)]
[Illustration:
=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.
[Illustration: =Fig. 49.=--_Ceraphron niger_
(Curtis) ♂. A tiny black parasitic Chalcid that infests the
pupae of the leaf-mining fly (_Phytomyza affinis_).
=49a.=--Head of Female.
(“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.”