ASITMKAD: Cr.ASSIFICATIOX OF THE CIIALCII) FLIES 333 



Haliday thought Cratomvs was allit'd to the Pcrihtmjndiv and placed it in that 

 family, an unnatural position for it. It i.s a true Ptcromalid and falls into the sub- 

 ftiniily Sjjli€(j!<j<is(eriv;r, as is abundantly proved Ijy the discovery of my genus Para- 

 caratomtis. 



Nothing is positively known of the habits of this minor group, but I suspect that 

 the group is parasitic upon the larvse of beetles. 



TABLE OF GEXEKA. 

 Head corinited in front ; face with converging stria' liclow tlie insertion of the antennre ; abdomen short, 



subscssilc or l)riefly petiohite Cratomus Dahnan (type Cynips vifgacephalns Falir.). 



Head not cornnted ; fixec with converging striic below the insertion of the antennie ; abdomen longly 

 petiolate, tlic Ijody subcomiircssed towards apex, the petiole nearly twice as long a.s the hind coxa*. 



Paracaratomus Ashmead (type P. cqihaloleg Ashm.). 



SUKFAMILY IV. SrALANOIIN.^. 



1840. Spalangiides, Subfamily? (partim), West wood, Intro. ]\Iod. Class. Ins., II., 



Synop., p. G6. 

 1856. Spalangoidto, Familie 6 (partim), Forster, Hym. Stud., XL, pp. 18, 22 and 40. 

 1875. Spalangiina, Trilms (partim), Thomson, Hym. Skand., IV., pp. 12 and 200. 

 1886. Spalangiinte, Suljfamily (partim), Howard, Ent. Amer., I., p. 198. 

 1897. Spalangiinie, Subfamily IV., Ashmead, Proc. Ent. Soc. Washington, IV., p. 248. 



This subfamily is quite distinct from all of the others here defined by the 

 peculiar oblong shape of the head, a character found in no other family in the 

 Chalcidoidea, except in the family Agaonidx, although not unconuuon among the 

 Aculeales, especially in the superfamily Vespoidea, the oblong head l)eing one of the 

 principal characters that distinguishes the family Iliihi/li(hr : it is also reproduced in 

 the Ckrysididiv and occasionally in two or three other families. 



Dr. Forster and others incorrectly placed here the genus Asuphcs Walker (= [.•<o- 

 cratus Foi-ster); it is a genuine PtcrovKtlinr. 



The subfamily Spalangiinx is readily distinguished by the oblong shape of the 

 head, by the antennae being inserted iar anteriorly close to the mouth, by the longer 

 more depressed thorax, by the shape of the pronotum, by the petiolated abdomen, 

 and liy the venation of the front wings, the co.stal cell being long and exceedingly 

 narrow. 



Tlie species of Hpalangia are parasitic on dijiterous larvfe. The species in the 

 other genera, according to the records, destroy coleopterous larvte. 



TABLE OF CKNEKA. 



1. Females 2 



Males 5 



