500 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



I Marginal branch punctiform. - - - Cosmocoma. 



II Marginal branch elongated. 

 § Metathorax with two keels. Antennae of the 



female 9-jointed. - - - Caraphractus. 



§§ Metathorax not keeled. Antennae of the male 



10-joiuted, of the female 9-jointed. - - Stichothrix. 



** Abdomen sessile or nearly sessile, 

 f Antennae of the male 12-joiuted, of the female 

 9-jointed. Marginal branch elongated, some- 

 what thickened near the tip. - - - Anaphes. 

 ft Antennae of the male 13-jointed, of the female 

 9-joiuted. Marginal branch linear, not thick- 

 ened near the tip. .... Anaorus. 



They have been illustrated by five figures, two of which 

 accompany these notes. The first is Anaphes punctum 

 (Ichneumon punctum), Shaw, Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. iv. ; the 

 second is Pteratomus Pulnami, Packard, Proc. Essex Insti- 

 tute, iv. 137, pi. 3, f. 8, and is copied by permission of 

 Dr. Packard, and this American species is supposed to be 

 the smallest of all insects, and is especially remarkable on 

 account of the peculiar structure of the fore wings. The 

 structure of the wing-veins is more rudimentary than that of 

 any other tribe of Hymenoptera, and they have most affinity 

 with the two large tribes of Chalcidise and Oxyura, which 

 come next to them in simplicity of structure. However, as 

 A. H. Haliday first observed, they are much more allied to 

 the Chalcidiaj than to the Oxyura, and there appear to be 

 intermediate genera, such as Thysanus and Prestwichia. 



From the number of specimens that 1 have observed 

 I believe that the Mymaridae are considerably more numerous 

 than what have been recorded. Their exquisite elegance 

 would appear to advantage in highly-magnified figures of 

 each kind, and one of the "coming race" of entomologists 

 will do well to investigate their successive epochs of life, and 

 to publish his discoveries with illustrations as ,above men- 

 tioned. 



The early life of this family has been observed by Loew, 

 who witnessed a Polymena and a Rachistus from larvae of 

 Gymnsetron villosulum in galls of Veronica anagallis; the 

 Polymena allied to P. longula, and the Rachistus to R. litto- 

 ralis. He also mentions an Anaphes from larvae of Cecidomyia 



