XXIII 



PARASITICA 



563 



the expense of cockroaches (Blattidae), and to deposit their 

 eggs in the egg -capsules of those Insects. The species of 

 Gasteruption live, in the larval state, on the larvae of other 

 Hymenoptera, more especially of such as form nests in wood. 

 Very little is known as to the habits of the species of Aulacus, 

 but it is believed that they are parasitic on members of the 

 Hymenopterous families, Siricidae and Oryssidae. Only the 

 most meagre details as to the life history of any of the Evaniidae 

 have been recorded. The species of Evania are met with most 

 freely where cockroaches abound, and are said, hence, to be 

 frequently observed on board ship. Two or three species of 

 each of the two genera Evania and Gasteruption occur in 

 Britain. The latter genus is 

 more widely known under the 

 name of Foenus} 



Fam. IX. Pelecinidae. 



Sexes very different ; the female 

 without exserted ovipositor, 

 but with extremely long 

 abdomen. Articulation 

 between the femur and 

 trochanter oblique and 

 elongate, but without divi- 

 sion of the trochanter. 



This family at present com- 

 prises, according to Schlet- 

 terer, 2 only the three genera 

 Pelecinus, Ophionellus, and 

 Monomachus. The systematic 

 position of the Insects is very 

 doubtful, and their habits are 

 but little known. Pelecinus 

 polyturator (Fig. 370) appears, 

 however, in the female sex, 

 to be a common Insect over a large part of the warmer regions 



1 Monograph, Schletterer, Verh. zool.-lot. Ges. Wien, xxxv. 1885, p. 267, etc. ; 

 xxxvi. 1886, p. 1, etc. ; and Ann. Hofmus. Wien, iv. pp. 107, etc. 



2 Berlin, entom. Zcitschr. xxxiii. 1889, p. 197. 



FIG. 370. Pelecinus polyturator, 9. 

 Mexico. 



