THE CENTURY S WORK AMONG THE CHRYSIDAE. 15 



most lucid manner imaginable a sort of wonderful dog-Latin, as 

 audacious and original as was all his work — a sort of Latin which 

 would make a grammarian's hair stand on end, but which conveys his 

 meaning on all subjects fully, clearly, briefly, and precisely. He 

 describes (most admirably) over 200 species, many really new ; he 

 points out nearly all the details of structure on which systematists 

 still rely, and he gives much valuable information, based on his own 

 examination of the types, as to names employed by Fabricius, Spinola, 

 and other venerable ancients. 



We must deal more briefly with the other authors dead and living 

 who have increased our knowledge of the Chrysids during this century, 

 but two great works deserve especially to be mentioned (1) IMocsary's 

 exhaustive Monograph on the Chrysids of the whole world — a work 

 strongest perhaps where Dahlbom was weakest, c/c, as summarizing 

 completely the existing literature of the subject, though it contains 

 also much that is the author's own. This work (1889) deals with 733 

 species, the characters, distribution, synonymy, &c., of each being fully 

 and carefully examined. (2) Vicomte R. du Buysson's excellent 

 contribution (vol. vi., 1891-1896) to Andre's " Species." Though 

 limited to the Palrearctic fauna, this embraces above 400 species, many 

 of them previously unknown, and, along with yet later publications of 

 these two authors, brings up the total of recorded species to something 

 not far short of the 900 at which we estimated them above. 



Besides these great general works, a few dealing with the Chrysids of 

 particular districts deserve more notice than our space permits — c.;/., 

 those of Abeille du Perrin (France, 1879), Lucas (Algeria), Chevrier 

 and Frey Gessner (Switzerland), Schenck (Germany), Radoszkovsky 

 (Russia), Wesmael (Belgium), Thomson (Sweden), Borries (Denmark), 

 &c., to say nothing of " exotics " (America, India, &c.). 



In England, comparatively little has been done since Shuckard 

 (1837) whose work on the British Chrysids was as good as anything 

 published before the days of Dahlbom, and who added two new species 

 from this country to the European list ; Smith (18G2) hardly improved 

 on Shuckard's work, and Walker, though he described Chrysids 

 fearlessly, shows no knowledge whatever of their structure — " ut qui 

 Dahlbomi opus nunquam viderit" says Mocsary. 



It is to be hoped that in the next century English entomologists 

 may play a somewhat more conspicuous part than they have done in 

 that just closing, among the advancers of learning in this small but 

 attractive branch of study. 



Evolution of our knowledge of the Ichneumonidae during the 

 Nineteenth Century. 



By CLAUDE MORLEY, F.E.S., etc. 

 At the dawn of the present century we find Ichneitiiioiiithit', in the 

 later and more restricted sense, in but sorry plight. No work had yet 

 been entirely devoted to their elucidation, and whatever pretence there 

 then existed at classification was wholly based upon the mere colour 

 diagnoses of Linne and Fabricius, with a few species supplemented 

 by Fourcroy, Gmelin, Villers, Sclirank, Christ, and Panzer. In Britain 

 no attention had been given the subject though Moufet had, as early 

 as 1634, drawn attention to a " Masca,'' undoubtedly our I'inipla 



