ASHJIEAD : CLASSIFICATION OV THE CHALCID FLIES 227 



Smyrna fig jx^lk-nized by these Chalcid-flies, will in time diminish the impor- 

 tation of the Smyrna fig. The Me(jastiyin:une too, I suspect, are like the fig- 

 insects, and will he found to be of great importance as pollenizers of various plants 

 and trees. 



At present the known genera and species of the ( "halcidoidea are considerably 

 less in number than are the Ichneumonoidea recently classified by the writer; but 

 this is due simply to the fact that the literature on the subject, in various languages, 

 is widely scattered, in many foreign journals, magazines, proceedings of learned 

 societies, etc., and the minute size of most of the species and the difficulty of their 

 study, have deterred entomologists from giving them any attention. Only a little 

 over 5,000 species have been described. 



If we look back for a century and a half we find comparatively few who have given 

 much attention to these " atoms of creation," and of these a few names only stand 

 out conspicuously as students of this great complex. The study of the group began 

 about one hundred and fifty years ago with Linnaeus in Sweden and with GeofiVoy 

 in France. Linne, or Linnaeus, in his Systema Natura, tenth edition, published in 

 1758, described several species under his genera Ichneumon, Cynips, Sphex, etc. 

 Others took up their study, and an interest in them Avas aroused in Sweden, Austria, 

 Germany, France, Italy, and England. In Sweden, besides Ijinne, Swederus, Fabri- 

 cius, Zetterstedt, Dalman, Boheman, Dahlbom and Thomson did much valuable 

 work in the group ; in Germany, Klug, Nees von Esenbeck, Bouche, Ratzeburg, and 

 Forster — the last mentioned, the greatest systematic worker in the group; in Austria, 

 Reinhard and Mayr; in Russia, Motschulsky ; in France, Geotfroy, Latreille, Fons- 

 colombe, Perty, Guerin, Giraud, Sichel, and Andre ; in Italy, Spinola and Rondani ; 

 in England, Curtis, Haliday, Westwood, Walker, Saunders, Kirby, and Cameron ; 

 and in America, Say, Fitch, Cresson, Walsh, Riley, Frovancher, Howard, and Ash- 

 mead. A few others might be mentioned, but those specified are the ones whose 

 nanies stand out prominently as adding materially to our knowledge of the group 

 during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. 



For years I have been studying this great complex and in the following pages 

 have attempted to define the families, subfamilies, tribes, and genera of the world. 

 The work has been a gigantic and most laborious one, necessitating the microscopic 

 examination of many th9usands of these minute creatures ; but if it shall be found 

 that I have brought some order into their classification, that I shall excite an 

 interest in the collecting of the many thousands still unknown, and that I shall 

 stimulate others to study them, my time has not been wasted and I shall be amply 

 repaid. 



