4 INTRODUCTION. 



system ; they are to be regretted, since so many are " uoins de 

 fantaisie, sans etymologie," censured by the British Association 

 so long ago as 1842. 



Probably the present family, in common with all parasitic 

 Hymenoptera, has been collected less than any other group of 

 insects, on account of the difficulty of the identification of its 

 members. Professor Westwood's collection at Oxford contains 

 many ancient specimens from Col. Sykes, Templeton, and Boys ; 

 hut the majority are from the veteran Dr. G. H. K. Thwaites, 

 F.R.S., F.L.S., Director of the Botanic Gardens at Peradeniya in 

 Ceylon from 1849 to about 1880, who died at Kandy on llth 

 September, 1882. He also presented some two thousand insects 

 to the British Museum, which has constantly received small parcels 

 from India : thus, in 1843 a collection was received from Arch- 

 deacon Clerk, who took them about Moulmein ; in 1845, from 

 Ceylon (Rev. T. Wenham) ; in 1851, from Mr. Baly ; in 1855, 

 from North India (Capt. Reid) ; in 1869, from Bombay (R. R. 

 Holmes) ; in 1879, from the East India Museum ; in 1883, from 

 Ceylon (P. X. Braine); in 1884, from the United Provinces 

 (Mrs. Home) ; in 1885, from Assam (Mrs. Evans); in 1887, from 

 the Bombay Natural History Society (all captured about Pooua 

 by my friend Mr. R. C. Wroughton) ; in 1889, from Ceylon and 

 from Quetta, through the Karachi Museum ; in 1892, from 

 Ceylon (Col. Terbury) ; and many others. The Museum also 

 possesses part of the specimens taken by the second Tarkand 

 Mission and captured by Dr. Stoliczka, the majority being truly 

 Indian ; the remainder, which I have not seen, are in the Indian 

 Museum. 



Mr. Gardiner has published the results of his collecting in the 

 Laccadive and Maldive Islands ; and Col. Bingham, who died on 

 18th October, 1908, visited various remote and interesting col- 

 lecting grounds, such as the Nicobar and Andaman Islands ; he 

 also collected in Burma in 1877, but most of his specimens are 

 from the peculiar Sikkim district (c/. E. M. M. 1909, pp. 18 & 36). 

 Leonardo Fea also collected largely in Burma some years ago, 

 but the Parasitica amounted to little more than a hundred speci- 

 mens, which are in the Genoa Civic Museum. Mr. George Lewis 

 has collected Hymenoptera in Ceylon, whence Mr. E. E. Green, 

 Mr. O. S. Wickwar, and Mr. T. B. Fletcher have recently sent 

 me many specimens. Mr. G. C. Dudgeon found some interesting 

 species in the Kangra Valley in the Punjab, as well as in Bhutan ; 

 and extensive collections from various districts are in the Pusa 

 Collection and the Indian Museum. Col. Nurse's collection is 

 mainly from Kashmir, Baluchistan, and the north-west. Palae- 

 arctic districts, and is consequently of considerable interest as 

 connecting the faunas of East and "West; insects taken by 

 Mr. Brunetti and others at Darjiling and Mussoori are very 

 similar in their western affinities. All Mr. Rowland Turner's 

 Assam ICHXEUMOXIDJE were taken in 1903-4 at an altitude of GOOO 

 feet in the Khasi Hills, about Shillong. for the most part on the 



