66 
ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 
the Chalcididse the antennas are always elbowed, and have one or 
more ring-joints between pedicel and funicle. With the Procto- 
trupidas they may be elbowed or not, and seldom have a single 
small ring-joint, in which case they are not elbowed. With the 
Chalcididae the ovipositor arises below and anterior to the tip of 
the abdomen; with the Proctotrupidae from the tip To this 
character I know of no exceptions, though Thomson, without 
specifying them, states that there are such. The most perfect 
distinguishing character is, however, that in the Chalcididas the 
pronotum never reaches to the tegulae, while in the Proctotru- 
pidae it is always separated from the tegulae by a simple suture 
only. The w,ing-cells are always undeveloped in the Chalcididae, 
while certain ones are occasionally found in the Proctotrupidae. 
The colors of the Chalcididae are almost invariably metallic, and 
such colors are very rare with the Proctotrupidaa. 
[A discussion of the characters used by different authors is 
here omitted for the sake of brevity.] 
In order to indicate the confusion which exists among the dif- 
ferent authors in points of nomenclature, I introduce a table of 
the nomenclature of the veins of the fore-wings according to the 
three principal systems : 
Walker and 
Haliday. 
humerus 
ulna 
radius 
cubitus 
carpus 
Forster and 
Mayr. 
humeralis 
marginalis 
postmarginalis 
stigmaticus 
clavus 
Thomson. Proposed. 
postcosta submarginal 
stigma marginal 
metacarpus postmarginal 
radius stigmal 
clavus club 
uncus hook 
basalis ist spurious 
cubitalis 2d " 
spurius 3d 
From this collection of names almost every writer on the group 
has adopted just so much as he chose, so that, except from the 
context, it is almost impossible for the student to understand what 
is meant by any one name. After a careful consideration I have 
adopted in my papers the nomenclature given in the fourth col- 
umn. No term needs explanation, and for this reason I use it, 
although, as soon as perfectly satisfactory homologies are estab- 
