OF WASHINGTON. 229 



This degraded male type is exceptional in the order Hymen- 

 optera, as I am only aware of its occurrence among the fig 

 insects, as Blastophagse, although it is not unusual in Homoptera 

 and possibly other orders. 



Mr. Howard, in his generic synopsis of the Chalcididae, has 

 placed the genus in the sub-family Elachistinse, following 

 Thomson's classification, but it plainly does not belong here, 

 agreeing in no essential character with this group. In all the 

 essential characters, except in having two tibial spurs to the 

 posterior legs, it agrees with the Tetrastichinae : The submar- 

 ginal vein is distinctly broken, the postmarginal undeveloped ; 

 the scutellum with two furrows, while the abdomen is sessile. 

 I therefore propose to remove it to this group. 



The first notice of the occurrence of the genus in America 

 was by Dr. A. S. Packard, Jr., who in the Proceedings of the 

 Essex Institute, Vol. IV, p. 13, described A nthophora bia mega- 

 chilis, from the 9 alone, obtained from the cells of Megachile 

 centuncularis Linn, collected by Mr. Putnam at Bridgport, Ver 

 mont. Dr. Packard counted upwards of one hundred and fifty 

 larvae in a single cell. 



In the Department Collection there is a single female speci 

 men, agreeing tolerably well with Packard's species, reared by 

 Dr. Riley, November 17, 1877, from the cells of Anthophora 

 abrupta Say, collected in Carondelet, a suburb of St. Louis, 

 Mo., which were also infested with a Meloid larva, Hornia 

 minutipennis Riley, Dipterous larvae and mites. 



At Jacksonville, Fla., during the month of August, in 1887, 

 I reared a species from the common mud wasp, Pelop&us cemen- 

 tarius Drury, to which I gave the MS. name Melittobia pelopcei; 

 and Prof. B. A. Popenoe has reared a species at Manhattan, 

 Kans. , from the cells of the same insect. 



Recently another species was handed me to be determined, 

 reared in quantities from the cells of Chalybion c&ruleum Linn., 

 collected in Virginia, and which, as far as I can remember, is 

 different from Melittobia pelop&i, Ashm., MS. This species I 

 exhibit to-night in both sexes, and have drawn up a description 

 of it under the name Melittobia chalybii. The larva of Melitto 

 bia, according to Newport, " is completely apodal, of a sub- 

 cylindrical form, a little attenuated at each extremity, and 

 composed of fourteen segments. The head is small, like that 

 of a wasp or hornet, and the mandibles are short and acute. 

 It occurred in the cells to the number of thirty or fifty in each. 

 I found it not only in autumn, but also in the winter and early 

 spring in this state, but in some cells the larvae had changed 

 to nymphs before the month of September." Mr. Newport 

 then enters into a discussion of the habits of the insect, the 

 structural characters of the males, etc. , which is well worthy of 



