PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



issued vM^vsJ^^ ^l^mm ^Sf '^* 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Vol.88 Wa.hington:1940 No. 3082 



REVISION OF THE CHALCID-FLIES OF THE TRIBE 

 CHALCIDINI IN AMERICA NORTH OF MEXICO 



By B. D. Burks 



The tribe Chalcidini includes a relatively large number of the 

 more conspicuous Nearctic chalcidoids, most of which have long been 

 included in the genus Smicra. All the species in this tribe are 

 referable to the section "Abdomine Petiolato" of the genus Chalcis ^ 

 of Fabricius. The tribe Chalcidini as here limited is equivalent to 

 the genus Chalcis as defined by Westwood.^ Most authors have 

 treated the group as the genus Smicra or Smiera. As Gahan and 

 Fagan ^ showed that Smicra {Smiera) Spinola and Chalcis Fabri- 

 cius were isogenotypic, the genus formerly called Smicra took the 

 name Chalcis instead, and the species that had long been placed in 

 the latter genus were referred to Brachymeria. In 1904 Ashmead* 

 formulated the tribe Smicrini and included in it, along with Smicra^ 

 a large number of genera. With the change in the name of its type 

 genus, it becomes necessary likewise to change the name of the tribe 

 Smicrini to Chalcidini, the Chalcidini of Ashmead becoming Bra- 

 chymerini. The tribe Chalcidini, as treated here, is almost identical 

 with Smicrini Ashmead. 



METHODS 



In this paper, wherever possible, the comparative terms in general 

 use in insect morphology have been used instead of the more or less 

 conventional taxonomic terminology. 



^ Systema piezatorum, p. 150, 1804. 



'An introduction to the modern classification of insects, vol. 2, p. 65, 1840. 



«U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 124, p. 133, 1923. 



* Mem. Carnegie Mus., vol. 1, p. 250, 1904. 



237 



