2 BULLETIISr 124, UXITED STATES NATIOXAL MUSEUM. 



The writers have attempted in the following pages to present a 

 complete catalogue of all of the known generic names referred to this 

 large and important superfamily, with the indication in every case of 

 what we believe to be the correct genotype, using as the basis for the 

 compilation Dalla Torre's Catalogus Hymenopterorum, Chalcididae, 

 and tlie extensive card index of genera and species maintained by the 

 Hymenoptera section of the Division of Insects of the United States 

 National Museum. 



The list includes a total of 1,911 generic names, inclusive of 98 

 emendations, or considerably over double the number listed by Ash- 

 mead in 1904. No doubt some errors and omissions have been made 

 in spite of the fact that every effort has been made to avoid such. 

 We hope that such errors as may have crept in will be viewed char- 

 itably, and that students of Chalcidoidea will find the catalogue not 

 only reasonabl}' correct but helpful in the difficult task of classifying 

 and determining these interesting if minute insects. 



References and conclusions set forth in every instance, except 

 M'here otherwise noted, have been arrived at by consulting original 

 publications. The rules and opinions of the International Commis- 

 sion on Zoological Nomenclature have served as the guide in solving 

 all nomenclatorial questions. 



Correctior.s of what we believe to be erroneous previous type 

 fixations have, in a few unfortunate instances, resulted in changing 

 the current interpretations of well-known genera. A case in point, 

 and the most deplorable of all, is that making necessary the use of 

 the generic name Chalcis for the group previously known as Smiera 

 or Smiera, and requiring that the group of species previously placed 

 under Chalcis be known by a different name; that is, Brachymeria. 

 The reasons for this change, as well as for other similar ones, are set 

 forth in notes under the generic names affected. The number of 

 such radical changes is not large and such as do occur simply demon- 

 strate the need for a catalogue of the character here presented. 



This paper is a contribution from the Branch of Cereal and 

 Forage Crop Insects of the Bureau of Entomology of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture. 



(,'ITATIONS TO LITERATURE. 



With the exceptions of the three publications listed below all 

 citations to literature are given in full in the body of the catalogue 

 wherever necessary. For reasons of economy of space it was not 

 deemed necessary in the case of the three following standard works 

 to repeat each time the full citation, and where the following refer- 

 ences occur the publications indicated are meant : 



Ashmead, 1904=Ashmea(l, W. H. — Classification of the Chalcid Flies. Memoirs 

 Carnegie Museum, vol. 1, 1904. 



