4 NATURAL HISTORY. 



are not notched, the ocelli are indistinct, the prothorax is produced on each side as far as the 

 insertion of the fore vfings, and the abdomen consists of from five to seven rings, with the ovipositor 

 issuing from its extremity. The hinder thighs are generally not thickened. 



Tiie great majority of the species of this family are minute black 

 insects, with opaque, hairy, whitish wings, and often, notwithstanding their 

 minuteness, of exceedingly elegant form. Like the Ichneumonidte, they 

 are parasitic in their habits, the females depositing their eggs in the eggs 

 and larvae of other insects, and attacking especially the larvae of the 

 Tipulidae, Aphides, Gall Flies, and Lepidoptera. The species are spread 

 over the whole earth, and their number is incalculable in the present state 

 , w- of our knowledge. It may be observed, however, that over 150 genera 

 have been established for the German forms alone. The larvae, when full 



fed, spin a little cocoon for their protection dining the pupa stage. As 

 TELEAS L^EVIUSCULUS, . ,, 7 ? \ 



MAGNIFIED. an example of this family we figure a small species (I elects (ceviusciUus), 



which deposits its eggs in those of certain Lepidoptera. It is a minute 



shining black insect, with brownish legs. The species of the genus Mi/mar have slender wings, 

 terminating in a broad expansion like a battledore. The expanded part is fringed with long hairs. 



FAMILY CHALCIDID^E. 



This is another large family of parasites distinguished from the preceding by several characters. 

 The antennae are always short and kneed, and consist of from six to fourteen joints ; the fore wings 

 have a costal vein, but scarcely any indication of others ; the prothorax is not produced at the sides 

 to the base of the wings; the hinder thighs are thickened, so that the hind legs are fitted for 

 jumping ; and the ovipositor, which may be either long or short, issues from the ventral surface of 

 the abdomen at some distance from its apex. The abdomen consists of six segments in. the females 

 and of seven in the males. The species are excessively numerous, as may be judged from the fact 

 that in England alone some 1,200 species have been recorded. 



These insects, which are nearly all of minute size, species of half an inch long being giants 

 among them, are parasites in other insects of the most various orders, and attack them in all stages 

 of their existence, from the egg to the pupa. In all their habits they resemble the smaller Ich- 

 neumonidae, but among them we find the great majority of the species which are parasitic upon 

 the parasites of other insects. They generally have the abdomen more or less compressed, and their 

 surface usually shows metallic colours, but this is subject to exceptions, especially among some of 

 the larger species. Thus the South European Leucospis dorsigera, which is parasitic in the nests 

 of Bees, and measures four or five lines in length, is black, with bands on the prothorax and 

 scutellum, three bands on the abdomen, the shaft of the antenna? and the 

 legs yellow ; and Chalcis sispes, a generally distributed European species, 

 measuring one-third of an inch, is black, with more or less of the legs red. 

 This last insect has been bred from a larva of Stratiomys. In Eulophus 

 pectinicornis, a minute brassy-black species, a twelfth of an inch long, 

 which is abundant upon oak trees, the antennae consist of only three joints 



1 ... . . CALLIMOME BEDEGt'ARIS. 



in the female, while the male has nine joints, three of which (the third 



to the fifth) bear each a long branch. The species of the genera Blastophaya and St/cojjhaga, which 

 are common in the South of Europe, frequent the figs, and assist in the impregnation of the female 

 flowers of those curious trees. Many of the species with elongated ovipositors are parasitic upon 

 the larvae of Gall Flies. The one figured infests the curious shaggy galls (Bedeguars) of the briar. 



FAMILY CYNIPID^E, OR GALL FLIES. 



In this last family of the Petiolated Hymenoptera, which is referred to the Entomophagous tribe 

 from its structural characters, we find exceedingly few insect-eating species, by far the greater 

 number feeding upon peculiar morbid excrescences of plants, known as galls, the growth of which is 

 caused apparently by the puncture of the parent insect, and the presence of the egg or larva within 

 the tissues. Thus, while they distinctly hold to the Entoinophaga by their structure, they seem in 

 their habits to lead towards the plant-eating forms constituting the following tribe. 



