90 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Encyi'tidse they excel the other Chalcidiae in their power of 

 leaping, for which they are adapted by the structure of their 

 middle legs. 



COCCOPHAGUS SCUTELLAKIS. 



The following notice of the parasitism of Chalcidiee refers 

 to what Ralzeburg, by information received from his nume- 

 rous correspondents, says on that subject in his work, 'Die 

 Ichneumonen,' &c., 1844. He mentions several species as 

 being certainly or probably destroyers of other parasitic 

 insects, and terms them parasites-parasites, which word, 

 being inconveniently long, may be shortened to parparasites. 

 They will, therefore, be considered as hurtful, and not as 

 beneficial insects, supposing that such a distinction is not 

 erroneous, nor owing to limited comprehension of cosmical 

 order. 



There is much space for investigation in testing the 

 observations already published, and in adding to them. 

 Reference to synonyms is reserved lor a future opportunity. 

 The parasitism of this tribe is somewhat like the distribution 

 of vegetation on the earth, neither unvarying nor without 

 order. One species lives for a year as a parasite in a gall, 

 and when it emerges it finds a new gall, and a victim there 

 ready for its successors ; others, when they are of age, may 

 find no habitations like their own for their prospective race, 

 and the law of necessity may impel them to seek for and 

 choose different kinds of dwelling-places. 



Eupelmus azureus. Parasitic on Teras terminalis in oak- 

 apples, and on Microgaster dispar: in the latter case it is 

 associated with Eurytoma Abrotani, Pteromalus tenuis, and 

 P. Boucheanus. 



