Q6 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



here figured, and perhaps a compensation for their greater 

 feebleness and inertness as compared with the rest of the 

 tribe. Corresponding enlargements of the mesothorax occur 

 in families of some other orders of insects. The Perilarapidge 

 are contiguous to the Eucharidae, and are not illustrated here, 

 and rarely occur in England, and are parasites of wood- 

 feeding insects. I have seen only two British specimens of 

 P. Italicus, and there are several other instances of only one 

 or two individuals of a Chalcid species having been found, 

 while Pteromalus domeslicus and Diglyphus Isaea occur in 

 hundreds of thousands. It is easy to account for this 

 abundance; but there is much matter for research in the 

 scarcity above mentioned, whether it is caused by original 

 slow increase, or by the destruction of the flies in one or 

 other of their stages of growth from the egg onwards. 



The Leucospidse were mentioned in the last number of the 

 ' Entomologist.' They appear to have migrated northward 

 in the Old World more slowly than most of the other 

 families of Chalcidise, for they are unl^nown in England and 

 in Sweden ; and, though one occurs in Germany, the species 

 to the north of the equator chiefly inhabit the shores of the 

 Mediterranean, and Egypt and Arabia. In the New World 

 they extend from Chili to Canada. They are said to live as 

 parasites in the nests of bees. The Chalcididse resemble the 

 Leucospidse in being chiefly inhabitants of warm countries, 

 and the species of Smicra especially abound in equatorial 

 America. A few prey on Lepidoptera, and S. xanthostigma 

 has been reared from the pupa of a Hylotoma. 



Notaspis formiciformis, here figured, is very far removed in 

 structure from the typical genera of Chalcididge. In con- 

 tinuation of the parasitism of Chalcidiae I will mention what 

 has been said elsewhere on this subject, omitting a few 

 species already noticed, and beginning with Nees ab Essen- 

 betk, the author of the first comparatively complete work on 

 the tribe. The Eurytomidae, which, by two of their repre- 

 sentatives, limit the American materials for bread and wine, 

 vacillate between injurious and beneficial insects ; and Nees 

 places them in a debatable situation, as appears by the 

 following extract : — 



" Latreillium et Dalmanura secutus, Eurylorase genus 

 inter Pteromalinos posui, quibus re vera habitu notisque ex 



