921 



CHALAZA. 



CHALCIDID^E. 



Chailletia toxicaria is called Ratsbane iu Sierra Leone. 

 embraces four genera and ten species. 



The order 



ChtliUttia pfduncutata. 



1, an expanded flower ; 2, the back of ditto ; 3, a petal ; 4, stamens ; 5, dif- 

 ferent views of the ovary ; 6, different views of the fruit ; 7, an embryo. 



CHALA'ZA, that part in a seed where the vessels of the raphe pass 

 from the exterior integument or primine, and expand into the secun- 

 dine. In the common almond it is readily seen by turning the testa 

 inside out and observing that part which corresponds to the apex of 

 the cotyledons. When the foramen of a seed is next the hilum, the 

 chalaza is most conspicuous ; but when the foramen is at the apex of 

 a seed, the chalaza will then be in contact with the hilum, with which 

 it must necessarily be then confused. 



CHALCEDONY. [AGATE.] 



CHA'LCIDES, Daudin's name for a family of Lizards, which, like 

 the Seps-Lizards, are very long and serpent-like ; but whose scales, 

 instead of being imbricated or disposed like tiles, are rectangular, and 

 form, like those of the tail in the ordinary lizards, transverse bands 

 which do not intrench upon each other. Some, says Cuvier, have a 

 ridge on each side of the trunk, and the tympanum still very apparent. 

 They approach the Cordyli, as the Seps-Lizards approach the Scinki, 

 and lead by several relations to the ShcUopwtickt and Ophisaun. The 

 t'halcida have four legs, but they are little developed, and the 

 extremities may be considered as in a degree rudimentary ; for some 

 of them cannot be said to be furnished with more than one well- 

 formed toe on each foot, though there are traces or rudiments of 

 more. Cuvier thus arranges the family : 



A species with five toes from the East Indies, Lacerta Seps of 

 Linnaeus. 



A species with four toes, Lacerta, tetradactyla, of Lace'pede ; 

 Chalcit tetradactyla. The genus Tetradactylut of Merrem ; Saurophis 

 of Fitzinger. 



A section which have the tympanum concealed, and leading 

 directly to the Simana (C'hirotex), and thence to the Amphisb&me. 

 Of these, there is a species with five toes, forming the genus Ghalcidee 

 of Fitzinger. 



A species from Brazil, with four toes before, and five behind, 

 Ifeterodattylut imbricat'M of Spix. 



A species with four toes on each foot, forming the genus Bracliypus 

 of Fitzinger. 



A species from Guyana, with five toes before, and three behind, but 

 reduced to small tubercles so little visible that the species has been 

 regarded at one time as having three toes, and at another as having 

 but one. Cuvier adds, that on the first supposition, it is the Chalcide 

 of Lace'pede, pi. xxxii. ; the Chamttxmra Cophiat of Schneider; the 

 genus (Jlutlcit of Merrem ; and the genus Cophias of Fitzinger ; and 

 that upon the second hypothesis, it is the C/ialcide monodactyle of 

 Daudin ; the genus Colobiu of Merrem ; but, adds Cuvier, all these 

 genera resolve themselves into a single species. 



Chalcis tetradactyla, has been given as an example of the family. 

 It is the Saurophis Ftps of Fitzinger, and under the name of S. tetra- 

 dactylii is referred by Gray to his family Conlylcs. [SAURIA.] 



Chalcit tttradaftyla. 



CHALCI'DID^E, a family of Hymenopterous Insects, of the section 

 Pupinora (Latreille). Nearly all the species are exceedingly minute. 

 Many are very brilliant, their colours consisting of various shades 

 of green, blue, or copperlike hues ; in some of the sections however 

 black is the prevailing colour. The thorax is usually large in pro- 

 portion to the body, and the latter is often of a compressed form, 

 and joined to the thorax 



by a distinct long petiole ^^S- ' ~\ /* *<* 



or stalk, as in Chalcis 

 clavipes, which is one of 

 the largest of the British 

 species, measuring from 

 tip to tip of the wings 

 when expanded upwards 

 of half an inch ; it is of 

 a dull black colour, and 

 remarkable for the exces- 

 sive development of tho 

 coxiao and femora of the 

 hinder legs ; the latter Clialcii clarii>r*. 



are of a reddish hue, ". The wings; 6, the hind-leg;' c, antcnnn, 

 and armed with eight magnified; d, hind femur and tibia of a species of 

 little teeth beneath; 1 > on "" a - 



the hinder tibise are curved. It is found on the leaves of shrubs in 

 marshy situations. 



In the species just described the oviduct is short, and hidden 

 beneath the abdomen, a circumstance very common in this tribe 

 in some however the oviduct is very long, equalling or exceeding the 

 body in length. This is the case in the genus Gallimome, a group 

 the species of which have very brilliant colours, principally green, and 

 deposit their eggs in the larvno of the Gall Insects (Gynipida), an 

 operation which their long bristle-like ovipositors enable them readily 

 to perform. Here, as in the genus Chalcis, the body is compressed. 

 Many of the species however have that part depressed. One of the 

 most striking characters in the Chalcidida; is in the wings, which 

 are almost destitute of nervures. Most commonly there is in the 

 superior wing a single nervure springing from the base and running 

 parallel with the exterior margin for about one-third of the whole 

 length of the wing. It then slopes upwards and joins the margin 

 itself ; and a little beyond the part where the slope takes place there 

 is a small short ramification thrown out obliquely, which is generally 

 thickened towards the extremity, and forms a little dark spot. The 

 antenna) are always elbowed, that is, tho terminal joints are bent 

 forward at an angle with the basal joint. We have observed that 

 when these little insects are about to leap, which a great portion 

 of them have the power of doing, they invariably bend their 



