114 ENTOMOLOGLCAL SOCIETY OF OXTARIO. 



hardly typical of that sex, and it is to be hoped that at some future time Mr. Edwards 

 will publish another illustration showing the more usual form, which has a much richer 

 appearance both on the upper and under sides. 



Ch. Macorniii is decidedly a variable species, both in the intensity of the golden 

 brown of the wings, in the amount of infuscation along the nervures, and in the size and 

 number of the ocelli. Both sexes frequently have three ocelli on the primaries, and 

 occasionally four. One specimen in my collection, plainly a male, has four distinct ocelli 

 on the primaries, the second and fourth from the apex large and pupilled. In fact, this 

 specimen has more nearly the markings of what appears to me the typical form of the females. 

 There is also a very much infuscated variation of the male which is rarely taken, in which 

 the nervures, are all broadly bordered and the greater part of the surface of the disk is 

 covered with dark scales. One of these was mentioned by Mr. Edwards in his original 

 description {Can. Ent., xvii., p. 74), and was omitted from the plate now published for 

 want of space. The life-history of this species has not yet been worked out, as no one 

 has succeeded in obtaining the pupa. It will probably be much like that of Ch. Chryxus: 

 but for the present it is unknown, and it remains for ?ome expert and patient breeder to 

 carry the larvte through all their stages and obtain this missing link. The eggs are easily 

 obtained when a I'emale has been captured ; but the breeding is very tedious, the larval 

 life lasting nearly two years. J. F. 



MoNOGKAPH OF THE NoRTH AMERICAN Proctotrypid.t-: : By William H. Ashmead. 

 Bulletin of the U. 8. National Museum, No. 45; pages 472; plates 18. 



Every student of the Hymenoptera must be delighted at the issue of this magnificent 

 volume, which bears most ample testimony to the extensive studies and patient industry 

 of the author. Treating, as he does, of a family in which the American species had 

 previously been but meagrely represented in collections, he has necessarily been compelled 

 to describe a large proportion of the insects now recognized, and to erect a considerable 

 number of genera for their reception. The labor involved in the critical examinations 

 requisite for the determination and description of so many microscopic forms, and in the 

 preparation of the voluminous text, must have been enormous, yet the author has been 

 able to amplify and embellish his work by the delineation of some one hundred and fifty 

 exquisite figures._ 



The position of the Proctotrypidii' in the order Hymenoptera is considered to be 

 much more closely allied to some families of the Aculeata than to the Chalcidida;, with 

 which they have been usually grouped, while they ahso approach in other respects the 

 parasitic Cynipida'. The Mymarinif, hitherto included as a sub-family, are set aside as 

 constituting a distinct family allied to the Ohalcidid:e, so that the species now contained 

 in the Proctotrypidif are characterized, and distinguished from the Chalcids, by the pro- 

 notum extending back to the tegula^ and the ovipositor issuing from the tip of the 

 abdomen. Ten subfamilies are recognized, which contain about one hundred and thirty 

 genera, represented by nearly six hundred species — a doubling of the genera and quad- 

 rupling of the species as enumerated in the catalogue of Hymenoptera issued a few years 

 ago by Mr. Cresson. Many of the genera are known only by single species, but others 

 contain numerous forms, the most extensive being Polygnotus (32), Proctotrypes (21), 

 Prosacantha (27) and Telenomus (32). The synoptic tables requisite for the separation 

 of the species in such genera, as well as the tables for the distinction of genera, etc., ^ive 

 evidence of great care and skill in their preparation and arrangement. 



While many of the genera are apparently confined to the more southerly and 

 westerly regions, the species in other groups have an exteiaded range, which at times 

 seems to be almost continental, as for instance Proctotnjpes cali/ornicus, which has been 

 taken at Ottawa. The members of this family have received but scanty attention in 

 Canada, so that their distribution northward cannot be stated, but undoubtedly many 

 interesting species could be found by a careful and patient collector in any locality. 

 Provancher, in his Faune Entomologique, was able only to announce the occurrence of 

 nine species, and about twice as many are recorded in his Additions completed just before 



