8 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



on ChalcidiEe." The remaining families, of which the Myma- 

 ridse and Platygasteridae have ah-eady been noticed, are 

 interesting on account of their indicating various beginnings 

 of the Hyraenopterous race, and from their being individually 

 and collectively, as it were, a life set above a life, or being 

 part of a double existence going on in a single outer form, 

 the increase of one being by the decrease of the other, 

 exhibiting or suggesting the same process in continually higher 

 degrees. The Scelionida^ are nearly allied to the Platygas- 

 teridge, but excel them and the Mymavidae in the development 

 of the wings, of which the vein or bone has much resemblance 

 to that of the Chalcidiae; they are also distinguished from the 

 Platygasteridae by the structure of the antennae, and have a 

 greater variety in size and in form. The little Telenomi are 

 parasitic on eggs of Lepidoptera and of Hemiptera, and 

 the more diminutive Baeus occurs on windows, where Myma- 

 ridae may often be secured by means of a brush and a bottle. 

 Thoron may be found on banks of ponds, and occasionally 

 take to the vi'ater. Scelio and Sparasion are widely different 

 from the two preceding genera. The Ceraphronidae are also 

 in some of their forms of very minute size; one kind may be 

 considered as an injurious insect, being, like Asaphes and 

 Coryna, a devourer of the beneficial Aphidii. 'I'here do not 

 appear to be any links between them and the other families. 

 The slow movements of the Diapridae are very unlike the 

 quickness in running or in jumping of the two preceding 

 families; the males are distinguished by their elegant 

 antennffi, and the species, like the Belytidae, dwell chiefly in 

 woods, where they are parasites on wood-eating or on fungus- 

 eating Coleoptera or Diptera. Platymischus inhabits the 

 sea-shore, where it is of frequent occurrence in the South and 

 West of England, and is probably parasitic on some sea-weed 

 insect. In the Belytidae and in the Proctolrupidae the fly 

 begins to rise above the more rudimentary structure, which 

 distinguishes the preceding families. A Proctotrnpes has been 

 observed to be parasitic on Orchesia micans and on Lithobius. 

 The Heloridae, like the Proclotrupidae, indicate a passage to 

 the higher tribes, but there is no occasion here to mention 

 particulars of this transition. In the Euibolemidae there is a 

 still nearer approach to aculeate Hymenoptera, which include 

 part of the Bethylida?. 



