8 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
on Chalcidiew.” The remaining families, of which the Myma- 
ride and Platygasteride have already been noticed, are 
interesting on account of their indicating various beginnings 
of the Hymenopterous race, and from their being individually 
and collectively, as it were, a life set above a life, or being 
part of a double existence going on in a single outer form, 
the increase of one being by the decrease of the other, 
exhibiting or suggesting the same process in continually higher 
degrees. The Scelionide are nearly allied to the Platygas- 
teride, but excel them and the Mymaride in the development 
of the wings, of which the vein or bone has much resemblance 
to that of the Chalcidiz ; they are also distinguished from the 
Platygasteride by the structure of the antenne, and have a 
greater variety in size and in form. The little Telenomi are 
parasitic on eggs of Lepidoptera and of Hemiptera, and 
the more diminutive Beus occurs on windows, where Myma- 
ridw may often be secured by means of a brush and a bottle. 
Thoron may be found on banks of ponds, and occasionally 
take to the water. Scelio and Sparasion are widely different 
from the two preceding genera. The Cerapbronide are also 
in some of their forms of very minute size; one kind may be 
considered as an injurious insect, being, like Asaphes and 
Coryna, a devourer of the beneficial Aphidii. ‘There do not 
appear to be any links between them and the other families. 
The slow movements of the Diapridz are very unlike the 
quickness in running or in jumping of the two preceding 
families; the males are distinguished by their elegant 
antenne, and the species, like the Belytide, dwell chiefly in 
woods, where they are parasites on wood-eating or on fungus- 
eating Coleoptera or Diptera. Platymischus. inhabits the 
sea-shore, where it is of frequent occurrence in the South and 
West of England, and is probably parasitic on some sea-weed 
insect. In the Belytide and in the Proctotrupide the fly 
begins to rise above the more rudimentary structure, which 
distinguishes the preceding families. A Proctotrupes has been 
observed to be parasitic on Orchesia micans and on Lithobius. 
The Heloride, like the Proctotrupide, indicate a passage to 
the higher tribes, but there is no occasion here to mention 
particulars of this transition. In the Embolemide there is a 
still nearer approach to aculeate Hymenoptera, which include 
part of the Bethylide. 
