482 INSECTA. 



C. gotta tinctoricE. Very pale fulvous ; covered with a silky and whitish 

 down, with a blackish-brown and glossy spot on the abdomen. In the round, 

 hard, and tuberculous gall found on a species of oak in the Levant, which is 

 employed in commerce. By breaking this gall we may frequently obtain the 

 perfect insect. 



The fourth tribe, that of the CHALCIDIJB, Spin., only differs essentially from 

 the preceding one in the antennae, which are geniculate, those of the Euchares 

 alone excepted, and which, from the elbow, form an elongated or fusiform 

 club, of which the first joint is frequently lodged in a groove. The palpi are 

 very short The number of joints of the antennae never exceeds twelve. 



We may refer the various genera established in this tribe to the genus 



CHALCIS, Fabricins. 



These insects are very small, and are decorated with extremely brilliant 

 metallic colours. Most of them enjoy the faculty of leaping. The ovipositor, 

 like that of the ichneumons, is salient and frequently composed of three 

 threads ; the larva? are also parasitical. Some of them, on account of their 

 extreme minuteness, live in the interior of the almost imperceptible ova of 

 insects. Others inhabit galls and the chrysalides of the Lepidoptera. I 

 suspect that they do not spin a cocoon. 



There are various subgenera. 



In the fifth tribe, that of the OXIURI, Lat, we observe species similar to the 

 preceding in the absence of nervures in the inferior wings, and in which the 

 abdomen of the females is terminated by a tubular and conical ovipositor, 

 sometimes internal, exertile, and protruding like a sting, and sometimes 

 external and forming a sort of tail or terminal point. The antennas are com- 

 posed of from ten to fifteen joints, and are either filiform or somewhat largest 

 near the end, or clavate, in the females. The maxillary palpi of several are 

 long and pendent. 



We reduce the various genera of which it is composed to one, the 



BKTHYLUS, Latreille, Fabricius. 



The habit of these insects are probably those of the Chalcidise ; but as most 

 of them are found on the sand or low plants, I suspect that their larvse live in 

 the ground. 



In the sixth tribe, or the CHUYSIDES, 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 termi- 

 nates in a little sting. The abdomen, wlu'ch in the female appears to consist 

 of but three or four rings, is concave or flat beneath, and can be flexed on the 

 pectus, in which state the insect is globular. 



This trite comprises the genus 



CHRYSIS, Linnaus. 



The lustre and richness of the colours which decorate these insects may 

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



