68 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



A NEW GENUS AND SPECIES OF MYMARID^. 



[Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea.] 

 By L. O. HOWARD. 



The very minute and structurally interesting insects of the 

 family Mymaridae have attracted considerable attention, and 

 several well-known entomologists have written about their 

 curious structure and habits. Haliday, "Westwood, Forster, 

 and Xees ab Esenbeck have in their turn interested themselves 

 to a considerable extent in these most curious creatures ; Ash- 

 mead and the writer have described a few American forms, 

 and Mr. A. A. Girault is about to monograph the species 

 found in this country. So far as known, all of the species 

 are parasitic in the eggs of other insects, and as a conse- 

 quence they are extremely minute in size in fact the family 

 has been stated by some writers to contain the most minute 

 of all insects. 



Among a number of interesting parasitic Hymenoptera 

 reared by Dr. A. \V. Morrill in the course of his investiga- 

 tions, for the Bureau of Entomology of the U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, on the white fly of the orange (Aleyrodes 

 citri R. & H.) at Orlando, Fla., and which Doctor Morrill 

 has sent to the writer for study, there occurs a very striking 

 mymarid, notable for its large size, which seems with little 

 doubt to belong to a genus hitherto uncharacterized. 



Family MYMARID^ Ashmead. 

 Subfamily MYMARIXJE Howard. 



Genus COSMOCOMOIDEA, n. gen. 



Female. General form rather slender. Head well rounded ; eyes 

 smooth, prominent, well separated; ocelli large, situated at angles of a 

 slightly obtuse-angled triangle, the lateral ocelli farther apart from 

 each other than from the eye margin; face with a very distinct trans- 

 verse carina above, with oblique carinse arising near each extremity 

 and extending towards mouth. Antennae (fig. n) inserted on middle 

 of face, bases widely separated, touching eye margin; n-jointed; scape 

 short, slightly rounded out below; pedicel short, obconical, a little 

 longer than wide; first funicle joint a little longer than pedicel but 

 much shorter than second, third, and fourth joints which decrease 

 gradually in length from 2 to 4; joints 5 to 8 also decrease gradually 

 in length; club obliquely truncate and somewhat longer than the three 



