Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T04:06:33.384Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Braconid Genus Aphrastobracon, Ashm.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

T. V. Ramakrishna Aiyar
Affiliation:
Madras Agricultural Department.

Extract

The genus A phrastobracon was erected by Ashmead in 1895 to include an interesting new Braconid that was bred out from the lac insect, Tachardia albizziae, Gr., by Mr. E. E. Green, in Ceylon, and the species was named A. flavipennis. Since then we have no further records of this insect from Ceylon or elsewhere. Even Mr. Green does not refer to it in connection with the same lac insect in his recent last volume on the Coccidae of Ceylon, though he has made mention of another Braconid, Bracon greeni, Ashm., bred by him from the same host and described by Ashmead as the same time as A. flavipennis. However, this insect was noted by the writer of this paper some years ago in South India, and latterly during the course of his studies on the local Coccidae specimens of this species were reared from two or three common scale-insects. It was at first thought to be a parasite on the scales and was identified by a well-known authority as a species of Megalommum, Sz.; a record to this effect may be found in the author's “ List of Parasitic Hymenoptera of Economic Importance from South India ” published in 1921. Further studies and observations made on the bionomics of this insect in recent years revealed its true habit as a parasite, not on the scale, but on a Lepidopterous caterpillar feeding on the scale, and its correct identification was obtained after consulting two or three specialists. A brief reference to the insect, explaining its habits, is made in the author's recently published memoir on the nim mealy scale, Pulvinaria maxima, Gr.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1926

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

* Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. xviii, 1895, p. 646.Google Scholar

Proc. 4th Ent. Meeting Pusa, 1921, p. 365.Google Scholar

Mem. Dept. Agric. India, Entom. Ser. viii, no. 12, 04 1925, pp. 127155.Google Scholar

§ The old name Braconinae was altered to Vipiinae by Gahan (Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. liii, 1917), and this has been accepted by recent workers.Google Scholar

* Termes. Füzetek. xxiii, 02 1900, p. 50.Google Scholar

Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. xxiii, 10 1900, p. 137.Google Scholar

Ann. Mus. Nat. Hung. iv, 1906, p. 549.Google Scholar

§ U.S. Nat. Mus. Bull. no. 83, 1914, pp. 39 and 90.Google Scholar

* Indian Forest Memoirs (Zoology), iii, pt. 1, 1915.Google Scholar

Pusa Bulletin no. 142, 1923.Google Scholar

Rept. 5th Ent. Meeting Pusa 1923, pp. 238247.Google Scholar