8 Journal New York Entomological Society. [Voi. xviii. 



ontology for the support of his conclusions. He would derive the 

 group as follows : " The first forms with an elongated ovipositor may 

 have come from Pseudosiricidse which no longer laid their eggs in 

 wood, but in the eggs of beetles occurring in the wood (Buprestidae 

 already existed). Thus the first parasitic Hymenoptera may have 

 arisen, to which the Ephialtitids, still so poorly known, may belong." 

 From these parasitic forms he would then derive the aculeates, 

 digger wasps and bees. He considers further that the Ichneumoni- 

 dx. are the most primitive of the various parasitic families, and that 

 among these the Pimplinse are the least specialized. The Braconidse, 

 Chalcidoidea, Proctotrypoidea, Evaniidae and Stephanid?e he believes 

 to be highly specialized forms. 



As Handlirsch himself seems to appreciate, there are many diffi- 

 culties in the way of this interpretation, and I believe that it will 

 have to be fundamentally altered. In the first place the derivation 

 of the Tertiary forms from Ephialtitcs-Vike insects rests upon a very 

 slender basis. The problematic genus Ephialtites, resembling a Bra- 

 conid or Torymid is the only member of the higher Hymenoptera 

 as yet to be found in the Jurassic (Malm), and its perhaps accidental 

 discovery there in nowise involves the probability of its being a prim- 

 itive type ; indeed the wonderful development of the parasitic Hyme- 

 noptera in the early Tertiary where they so closely simulated recent 

 forms would lead us to believe that Ephialtites must be only one 

 of many earlier types occurring contemporaneously, but remaining 

 still unearthed by paleontologists. 



The common occurrence of Jurassic Siricoid forms is however 

 well authenticated and in combination with the primitive morpholog- 

 ical characters of the recent Siricidje and allied families gives good 

 ground for considering them allied to the ancestors of the higher 

 Hymenoptera. 



Among the families of parasitic Hymenoptera I am inclined to 

 believe for several reasons that certain of the Evaniidae are the most 

 generalized and that they represent the most primitive group of 

 parasitica still surviving. Although they occur with other families 

 in both amber and at Florissant, it seems quite certain that they 

 were more abundant then than at the present time. Thus from the 

 Florissant shales I have described two species of Aulacinse probably 

 representing two different genera, and there occur in Baltic amber 



