230 INSECTA. 



the antennae filiform in both sexes, and consisting of eleven joints ; 

 abdomen ovoido-conical *. 



Sparasion, Lat. 



Similar to Ceraphron in the radial cell, and the projection of the 

 maxillary palpi ; but the antennae have twelve joints in both sexes, 

 are thickest at the extremity or clavate in the females, and the abdo- 

 men is flattened f . 



Then follow two subgenera also provided with a radial cell, and 

 in which the antennae, as in Sparasion, are thickest at the end or 

 clavate in the females, and where the abdomen is flattened ; but the 

 paljii are very short and do not project, or are not pendent. 



Teleas, Lat., 

 Where the antennae are composed of twelve joints \. 



ScELioN, Lat., 

 Where those organs consist of but ten joints §. 

 In the last subgenus, or 



Platygaster, Lat. 

 The radial cell disappears. The antennae of both sexes have but 

 ten joints, of which the first and third are much elongated. The 

 palpi are very short. The abdomen is flattened, and in the form of 

 a spatula. 



To this subgenus I refer the Psile de Bosc of Jurine, a sin- 

 gular Insect, in which the first ring of the abdomen gives origin 

 to a solid horn which curves forwards to above the head, and 

 which, according to the observations of an able naturalist, M. 

 Leclerc de Laval, is the sheath of the ovipositor. This species 

 is very small and entirely black ||, 

 In the sixth tribe, or the Chrysides, Lat,, the inferior wings, as in 

 the three preceding tribes, are not veined ; but their ovipositor is 

 formed by the last rings of the abdomen in the manner of the tubes 

 of a spy-glass, and terminates in a little sting. The abdomen, which 

 in the females appears to consist of but three or four rings, is con- 

 cave or flat beneath, and can be flexed on the pectus, in which state 

 the Insect is globular. 



This tribe comprises the genus 



Chrysis, Lin. 

 The lustre and richness of the colours which decorate these Insects 

 may challenge a comparison with those of the Humming-birds, and 



* Lat., Gener. Crust, et Insect., IV, 35. For some account of an American 

 species of this Insect, the destructor, which deposits its ova in the bodies of the 

 larvae of the Cecidomyia destructor, or Hessian-Fly, see Say, Journ. Ac. Nat. Sc. of 

 Philad. vol. I, part i, p. 47, 48. 



f Lat., Ibid., 34. 



X Lat., Ibid., 32. 



§ Lat., Ibid., 32. 



II Lat. Gen. Crust, et Insect. IV, 32. 



