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Vol. XXX. LONDON, JUNE, 1898. No. 6. 



CLASSIFICATION OF THE HORNTAILS AND SAVVFLIES, 

 OR THE SUB-ORDER PHYTOPHAGA. 



BY V-i-LLIAM H. ASHMEAD, ASSISTANT CURATOR, DEPARTMENT OF INSECTS, 

 V U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



-^ (Paper No. i.) 



For many years past, those most interesting of Hymenopterous in- 

 ^ jcts — the Horntails and the Sawflies — have received the closest study 

 by some of the ablest Hymenopterists of the world. Cresson and Norton, 

 in America ; Newman, Westwood, Kirby, and Cameron, in England ; 

 Klug, Hartig, and Konow, in Germany; Lepeletier and Andre', in France; 

 and Thompson, in Sweden, have all contributed much to our knowledge 

 of these insects^ and made decided improvements in their classification. 



Mr. Peter Cameron, in his excellent Monograph of the British 

 Phytophagous Hymenoptera, Vol. I., published in 1882, has given a 

 thorough review of the progress made in the systematic arrangement 

 of these insects ; besides, on the completion of the work, some years 

 later, gives a full bibliography on the subject; so that it is unnecessary 

 here to repeat or enter particularly into this part of the subject, since this 

 work is so easily accessible to the student. 



I shall here, therefore, very briefly refer to Cameron's work on the 

 group, and that of a later writer, Mr. F. W. Konow. 



Mr. Cameron, in his work, made some decided improvements in the 

 classification of these insects, and gave excellent tables for the separation 

 of families and genera. 



He recognized only four families : I. Teiithredinidx., II. Cephidce, 

 III. Siricidce. and IV. Oryssidce, and some of these he again subdivides 

 into subfamilies, tribes and subtribes. 



The latest systematist to work in the group, a most prolific writer, 

 and a profound and energetic student of these wasps, is Mr. F. W. 

 Konow, of Teschendorf, who in the Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift, 

 for 1890, proposed almost an entire new arrangement, besides giving a 

 very unique and original method for showing the relationship of the 

 different groups or tribes recognized by him. 



