2 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.xxiii. 



the Parasitica — the Proctotrypoidea, Cynipoidea, Chalcidoidea, and, 

 for the past ten years or more, to .studies in the Ichneumonoidea. He 

 has had material for examination from all parts of the world, and hopes, 

 in the tables he is now publishing, to place the families, subfamilies, 

 tribes, and genera on a better foundation, thus enabling students to 

 avoid man}' of the difHculties he himself encountered, to create an 

 interest in their collecting, and to stimulate their systematic study. 



The lirst systematist to fully appreciate the immensit}' of this com- 

 plex, to bring order out of confusion, and to lay a safe foundation 

 for its stud}' and classilication, was Dr. Arnold Forster, of Aachen, 

 Germany, who accomplished this great work in two contributions, 

 entitled Synopsis der Familien vmd Gattungen der Braconen, pub- 

 lished in 1862, and Synopsis der Familien und Gattungen der Ich- 

 neumonen, published in 1868. 



M}' own work in this superfamily is based almost entirel}' upon 

 that of Forster's, and it is scarcely necessary for me to state that with- 

 out his contri))utions for my guide the present work would have 

 been almost impossible. 



The more I study Forster's works on the parasitic Hvmenoptera, 

 the greater is my admiration for him and his work, and it was with 

 the utmost astonishment I found that these important contributions 

 had remained so long- neglected, unappreciated, and, until within com- 

 paratively recent years, almost totally ignored by American and 

 European students. 



Dr. Forster went too far in calling his groups families, but in the 

 majorit}' of cases these so-called families represented natural groups, 

 and as such ought to have been sooner recognized. His groups in the 

 family Braconidce have been recognized in most cases as subfamilies 

 by the Rev. T. A. Marshall, in his monographs of the European species, 

 while in the present work 1 have recognized his so-called families in 

 the Ichiieimumida' as either equivalent to subfamilies or tribes. 



In order that the position of this immense complex in the order 

 Hymenoptera may be thoroughh^ understood, I reproduce here a cor- 

 rected table of the superf amilies : 



TABLE OF SUPERFAMILIES.^ 



Suborder I. Heterophaga. Abdomen petiolate or subpetiolate, never broadly sessile; 



larvpe ai:)odous. 

 * Hypopygiuni entire, and closely united with the pygidium, the sting or ovipos- 

 itor when present always issuing from the tip of the 

 abdomen. 



^The numbering of the superfamilies and families in this paper conform to a 

 scheme of arrangement of the whole order Hymenoptera, as proposed by the writer 

 in John B. Smith's Insects of New Jersey, Trenton, 1900, pp. 500-613. Tables for 

 the recognition of the 94 famiUes into which the order is now divided will be given 

 at the end of this work. 



