ASHMEAD : CLASSIFICATION OF THE CIIALCID FMKS 267 



1900. EuclKiridiC, Family LXV., Aslunead, Proc. U. S. National Museum, XX III., 

 p. 202. 



In this family are found some of the most singular looking and wonderfully 

 shaped Chalcids known, the structure of the thorax, and particularly of the scutel- 

 lum, being most wonderfully and curiously modified and developed ; and this de- 

 velopment, in connection with the brilliant metallic green and blue colors of its 

 members, makes the group the most striking and attractive of any in the Superfam- 

 ily. Some of the species are now known to be parasitic upon ants and probalily 

 the whole group attacks these insects. In temperate regions the family is poorly 

 represented, l)ut in tropical counti-ics, where ants most abound and flourish in enor- 

 mous colonies, these insects are not rare and seem to have reached a very highly 

 specialized development. 



The known genera may l)e tabulated as follows : 



TABLE OF GENERA. 



1. Females 2 



Males -1 



2. Antennw 13-jointed or less 3 



Antennae 14-pointed or more. 



Scutellum simple; antennae 16-18-jointe<l Eucharissa Westwoofl (type E. .iprrwsn Wa^tw.). 



Scutellum produced posteriorly into a spine which is hiiii;itu(lin;ill> sliiatc ; aiitcnii.i' 14-joinlc(l. 

 Saccharissa Kii-liy (type Kucliiiri.^ ronlingcns Walker). 



3. Scutellum simple, neither bidentate nor produced into long processes 4 



Scutellum bidentate or produced posteriorly into long processes over the al«lomen 11 



4. Antenna; moniliform -"J 



Antenna; not moniliform f> 



r>. Abdomen compressed, ascending Eucharis Lalreille (type Ci/nlps ndsccndcns Falir.). 



.'Vhdonicn neither compressed nor ascending. 



Hind tarsi with the first joint nuuh tliickened ; antenna- 1 1-jointed Tricoryna Kiihy 



(ty|ic Eucharis jello Walt.). 



Ilin.l tarsi with the lirst joint very hmg, l)at not thickened Metagea Kirby 



(type Eucharis Zaliitcs Walk.). 



f>. .Joints of antenna' not serrate, cylindrical ' 



•Joints of antenna; serrate or subdentate !' 



7. .\ntenna' 13jointed, the joints short !^ 



.\ntenna' 1 1-jointed, the joints long. 



Thorax smooth, polislicd ; i)eti()le of abdomen abruptly enlarged at apex. 



Pseudometagea Ashmead (type Metagea schicarzii Ashni.). 



Thorax rugose : petiole of alxlonien normal, long and cylindrical .Psilogaster Blanchard 



(type P. ciiprciis lilanchard). 



8. Thora.x not greatly elevated, similar to Chrysolampus in the l'erilanipida>, punctate and with complete 



panipsidal furrows ; mandildes long, acute at apex, the right mandible with two teeth within, the 

 left with one tooth within Orasema Cameron (type O. siramineipes Cam.). 



