50 Prof. West wood on insects infesting the 



which genus Latreille placed Dalman's Agaon) are plant- 

 feeders ; this is well ascertained to be the case with Eury- 

 toma hordei, fuliipes, tritici and sccalis, the larvae of 

 which infest wheat-stalks, and are well known in America 

 underthe name of the "joint-worm" ; and I have described 

 and figured, in the ' Gardener's Chronicle,' 1869, p. 1230, 

 a species of Eurijtoma which feeds upon and destroys the 

 bulbs of a Brazilian Cattleyia. Hence M. Coquerel had no 

 hesitation, in describingthe female of one of his fig-insects, 

 to give it the name of Chalcis I ex2)lorator, and it is im- 

 possible to compare his figure of that insect (oj)- cit., 

 PI. X., fig. 4), or mine of Sycophaga crassipes (PL ii., 

 fig. 2), with a female Callimome and not be convinced 

 that the fig-species are most closely related to CalUmome 

 (many of the species of which are parasites on some of 

 the gall-making Cynipidce) ; the structure of the antenna) 

 (even to the minute articulations following the second 

 joint), the fusion of the three terminal joints of these 

 organs, the structure of the wings and wing-veins, and 

 the long exserted straight ovipositor, sufficiently prove 

 that these insects must be placed in the great family 

 CJialcididce. These characters also seem to me to forbid the 

 union of the fig-insects with the Ichncumonidcc, which have 

 long, multiarticulate, straight, equal-jointed, antennae, 

 more strongly- veined wings, and of which the majority 

 of the species are of a much larger size, together with 

 the absence of metallic colours of the body (which is seen 

 in some of the fig-insects) ; whilst none of the Ichncn- 

 monidce, I believe, are known to be otherwise than para- 

 sitic on other insects. 



Mr. Walker, in his ' Notes on Chalcidice ' (as he terms 

 the Chalcididce), has adopted (without acknowledgment) 

 my opinion of the relation of these insects with Agaon, 

 and has formed them into an uncharacterised family, 

 Agaonidce. He speaks of them (p. 59) as the "most 

 rudimentary form of the tribe, or the earliest created 

 among them, or the first ' won from the void and form- 

 less infinite.' " He adds that Coquerel supposed that 

 they have their place next to Scleroderma, which, he 

 affirms, has " no near affinity with the BetJiylidce, and 

 which has been supposed by some to belong to the 

 MutiUid(e, and by others to be the female of Myzinc. It 

 has some resemblance to the female Australian and 

 South American Tkynni, and by these connections the 

 primitive and semichaotic forms discovered by Dr. 



