1903 Our Present Knowledge of British Insects 231 



them, 1 in which the author points out that it is mainly of 

 the gnat families of the Cecidomyidae and Mycetophilidse 

 that we are ignorant. The Hymenoptera are less advanced ; 

 for although some sections, such as the Aculeata (including 

 the Chrysididae) and, to a less degree, the Braconidae, 

 Tenthredinidae, and a part of the Cynipidas, are fully 

 known,'- our indigenous Evaniidae, Ichneumonidns, and 

 Proctotrypidai have advanced little since the publication 

 by the Entomological Society of synonymic catalogues by 

 Rev. T. A. Marshall in 1872 and 1873, which are now 

 become obsolete. The most neglected of all the 

 Hymenoptera, however, are the Chalcididae, for of them 

 we are hopelessly ignorant, possessing practically nothing 

 in the way of literature — Francis Walker's Monographia 

 Chalciditum of 1839 being a frightful monument of love's 

 labour lost, since it is utterly unintelligible to any but its 

 author ! 



Most of the remaining Hemiptera, which constitute the 

 Sub-Order Homoptcra, have been individually studied, 

 though they receive very little attention from the general 

 entomologist, who is usually satisfied with a collection of 

 those kinds enumerated in James Edward's Homoptcra of 

 the British Islands of 1896. This work, however, contains 

 only the Cicadina and Psyllina, commonly known as " frog- 

 hoppers," and we have to thank the Ray Society for the 

 publication in 1876—83 of G. Buckton's Monograph of 

 British Aphides or plant lice, and quite recently Robert 

 Newstead's fine work on the British Coccidaj or scale 

 insects. There are still two groups of insects which have 

 been considered as most closely related with the Hemiptera, 

 to which special attention must be drawn, since so little is 

 known respecting them that their very existence is generally 



1 A List of British Diptera, by G. II. Verrall, F.E.S., 2nd ed., Cambridge, 

 1901. 



2 The Hymenoptera Aeuleata of the British Islands, by Edward Saunders 

 F.R.S., London, 1896; A Monograph of British Braconida, by Rev. T. A 

 Marshall, M.A., F.E.S., published by the Entomological Society, 1885-98 

 "An Annotated Revision of the British Chrysididae," by Rev. F. D. Morice 

 M.A., F.E.S, (Ent. Mo. Mag., 1S96) ; A Monograph of the British Phyto 



phagous Hymenoptera, by 1'. Cameron, published by the Ray Society, 1882-90 

 etc. 



