PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Suborder II. Phytophaga. Abdomen Ijroadly seysile; larv;e icith legs; trochanters 

 two-jointed. 



Anterior tibiae with only one ajiical spur Superfamily IX. SIRICOIDEA. 



Anterior tibije with two apical spurs Superfamily X. TENTHREDINOIDEA. 



CLASSIFICATION. 

 SupertHiTiily A^III. ICIIJ>rEXT]M01SrOir)E:^. 



This oToup ha.s in the past received the following- names: 



1744. Ichneumon Linn^us (part), Syst. Natur., 4th ed. 



1807. Pupophaga Latreille (part) , Gen. Crust, et Ins., Ill, p. 249. 



1809. Ichneunionides, Family IV, Latreille, Fam. Natur. du Regne anim., p. 444. 



1823. Entomotilla, Dumeril (part). Consider, gener. sur 1. classe d. Ins., p. 220. 



1837. Paradlica, Hartig (part), Wiegmann's Archiv., I, p. 158. 



1840. Entoiaophaga, Div. I, Spiculifera, Westwood (part), Intro. Mod. Classif. 



Ins., II, p. 83. 

 1899. Ichneumonoidea, Superfamily VIII, Ashmead, Jour. N. Y. Ent. Soc, VII, 



p. 47. 



No one, I think, who will make use of the above table of superfami- 

 lies, can fail to place correctly any parasitic wasp belonging to this 

 superfamily. 



It is unquestionabl}^ the largest and most extensive complex in the 

 order Hymenoptera, with possibly the exception of the Chalcidoidea, 

 and is composed of a vast number of minor groups, representing hun- 

 dreds of genera and many thousand species. 



Not less than a million species will be found existing on the globe, 

 although the known or described species do not yet reach much over 

 10,000. 



Unlike some species, in others of these great complexes, all, with- 

 out a single exception, are genuine parasites, and destroy or devour 

 the eggs, larvte, pupte, or imagoes of other insects; scarcely a single 

 order of insects is free from their attacks, and even relatives in their 

 own order and family are devoured b}^ them. 



The group, therefore, taken as a w^hole, is of the greatest economic 

 importance, since the vast majority of the species composing it are 

 beneficial to man. No other group of insects has a more important 

 role in the econom}" of nature. 



It is composed of innumerable species of the greatest variety in 

 shape and size, from the most minute or microscopic size, measuring 

 scarcely a millimeter in length, to forms that attain an inch, an inch 

 and a half, or even two inches or more in length, and with or without a 

 prominently exserted ovipositor, the ovipositor sometimes attaining 

 a length of four or five inches, and the group is in consequence one of 

 the most difiicult and perplexing to classify. 



The fauna of no single country is yet thoroughly known and our 

 private and public collections are crowded with undescribed forms. 



