THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 309 



DISCOVERY Ub' IHE GENUS CRAT.-EPUS EuRSiER IN 



AMERICA, AND THE DESCRIPTION OF A 



NEW SPECIES. 



EY WM. H. ASHMEAD, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



In 187S Dr. Arnold Forster, in his " Kleine Monograpliie ", erected 

 many new genera in the family Chalcididae that have been either over- 

 looked by subsequent entomologists, or, at least, not included in any 

 recent tables of the genera of this family, amongst which is a genus 

 he calls Cratcepus., placed by him in the Tetrastichoidce, and which I am 

 pleased to announce also occurs in America. 



The genus has only recently been recognized by me in a re-study of a 

 minute chalcid sent to me some years ago by my Canadian friends, 

 Messrs. James Fletcher and \\^ Hague Harrington, of Ottawa, who reared 

 it from a Dipterous larva destroying the seeds of the '' Canada 

 Thistle" (Cirsiutn arverise, Scop.), and to which I gave the MS. name 

 Soleiiotus I'letcherii, although at the lime I felt satisfied it was improperly 

 placed in this Thomsonian genus, as I vv^rote : " This species exhibits 

 strong Tetrastichid affinities, and the genus, if properly recognized, may 

 ultimately be assigned a position in that sub family." 



It is a singular fact, and another illustration of the uniformity of habits 

 of the species of a genus, that Cratcepus aquisgranensis, Forster, the 

 type of the genus, and the only other species known, was reared by 

 Forster from Cirsiuin lanceoloUctn. 



The description of the Canadian species is as follows : — 



Cratcepus Fletcherii, sp. n. 



$. — Length, 2 mm.; ovipositor half the length of the abdomen. 

 Black, shining; sutures of trochanters, apex of femora, front tibiae, except 

 extreme tips, apex of middle tibiae, hind tibia?, except a blotch at the 

 middle, and the basal joint of all tarsi, dark honey-yellow ; rest of legs 

 black. The front femora are lengthened and abnormally thickened, 

 markedly contrasting with the slender and shorter middle femora, while 

 the front tibiae are remarkably short, and slightly dilated. The very 

 short, black antennae are inserted low down on the face, apparently only 

 7-jointed, but in reality 8-jointed, the terminal joint being very minute. 

 Head transverse, a little wider than the collar, the face short ; collar large 

 transverse quadrate dorsally, obliquely declining, towards the head ; 

 mesonotum somewhat broader than the collar, flat above, with two distinct 

 furrows and a depression on its disk ; scutellum broader than long with 



