ASHMEAD : OLASSIFICATION OF THE CHALf'in FLIES 231 



Family LX. AGAONIDyE. 

 1846. Agaonid*, Family G (partim) Walker, List Chalc. Brit. Museum, I., p. 23. 

 1856. Agaonoidaj, Familie (S. descrip.) Forster, Hym. Stud., II., p. 29. 

 1871. Agaonidfe, Family (partim) Walker, Notes on Chalc, Ft. IV., p. 58. 

 1867. Blastophagidte, Familia, Kirchnei-, Cat. Hym. Eur., p. 188. 

 1882. CynipidPB, Sycophagides, Division 1, Saunders, Trans. Ent. Soc. London, p. 20. 

 1897. Agaonidse, Family LX., Ashmead, Proc. Ent. Soc. Washington, IV., p. 243. 



This family is one of the most striking and remarkable of any in the super- 

 family Chalcidoidea. It is based ui)on the genus Ayaotb Dalman, established in 

 1818, from a specimen taken in Sierra Leone, Africa. 



The species composing this family, on account of their habits, curious forms, and 

 the diversity of structure in the sexes, were long a puzzle to the ablest and most astute 

 of the European hymenopterologists, but it is now definitely settled that they form 

 a component of this great complex. Sir Sidney Saunders, as late as 1883, placed 

 them as a division with the family Cynipidts. In my opinion, however, they have 

 little in common with the Cynipoidea, and I concur with Walker, Westwood, and 

 Mayr, in believing them a component of this major group. 



Mr. Francis Walker, an Englishman, was the first to give the group family rank ; 

 but, as is the case with most of his families, he never properly defined or character- 

 ized it, and merely lumped together a miscellaneous lot of insects obtained from figs, 

 and called them a family — the Agaonidie. His ideas of the family were extremely 

 vague and indefinite, and he placed in it many foi-ms with which they had no 

 relationship. 



In 1871, Walker, in speaking of them said: "The Agaonidse appear as yet 

 chiefly in thi-ee aspects, and in three different regions. The first region is the 

 Mauritius, where they have been discovered by the researches of Dr. Coquerel. 

 The three species figured are said to be 'condemned to eternal darkness' in the 

 central regions of figs. These figs are the fruit of Firna h rr<i(j< iki and are luilit for 

 human food. Dr. Coquerel found the three species {Apocrijpta pm-wJoxa, A. perple.ni 

 and Sycocriipta caeca) in abundance in the interior of these figs, together with great 

 numbers of a fourth species, which he named Chalchf explorator and which he 

 believed to be parasitic on the other three species. Di'. Coquerel thought he saw 

 an affinity between them and certain Bethylids, Scleroderma contractor, etc." 



Walker thought they had more connection with certain South American and 

 Australian Thynnidx. He says: "Scleroderma seems to have more affinity with 

 Ty}ihl()jKi lie, the worker of Laliidiis, and with Dlvhllnidiii (//nix rrindi, \\\e suj>posed 

 female of Dorylaa; and thereby the multitudinous tiibc of ants wIiosl' (■coiiuniy is 



