PEOCTOTRYPID^. 201 



themselves little brown cocoons within the skin of their victim, 

 and in due time, are changed to winged insects, and eat tlieir 

 way ont." P. error Fitch (Fig. 135) is closely allied to P. 

 tipalm Kirby, which, in Europe, destroys great numbers of the 

 Wheat-midge. Whether this is a parasite of the midge, or 

 not. Dr. Fitch has not yet determined. 



The habits of the genus Bethylus remind us of the fossorial 

 wasps. Bethylus fuscicornis, according to Haliday, "buries 

 the larvEe of some species of Tinea, which feed upon the low 

 tufts of Rosa spinosissima, dragging them to a considerable 

 distance with great labor and solicitude, and employing, in the 

 instance recorded by Mr. Haliday, the bore of a reed stuck in 

 the ground instead of an arti- 

 ficial funnel, for the cells which 

 should contain the progeny of 

 the Bethylus, with its store of 

 provision." (Westwood.) 



The genus Inostemma is re- 

 markable for having the basal 

 segment of the abdomen of the 

 females furnished with a thick 

 curved horn, which extends over the back of the thorax and 

 head. Dr. Fitch states that /. inserens is supposed by Kirby to 

 insert its eggs into those of the Wheat-midge. In the genus 

 Galesns of C'urtis, the mandibles are so enlarged and length- 

 ened as to form a long beak, and Westwood farther states that 

 in some specimens tlie anterior wings have a notch at the ex- 

 tremity. Say's genus Coj)tera has similar wings. C. polita 

 Say was discovered in Indiana. 



In the very minute species of Mymar and its allies, the head 

 is transverse, witli the antennae inserted above the middle of 

 the face ; they are long and slender and elbowed in the male, 

 but clavate in the female. There are no palpi, while the very 

 narrow wings have a very short subcostal vein and on the 

 edges are provided with long dense cili?e. The antennae of 

 Mymar are thirteen-jointed in tlie male, and nine-jointed in the 

 female ; the club is not jointed. The tarsi are four-jointed, 

 and the abdomen is pedunculated. Mymar pukheUns Curtis 

 is a quarter of a line long. It is found in Europe. An allied 



