236 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 
NOTES ON SOME GENERA OF CANADIAN INSECTS. 
BY FRANCIS WALKER, LONDON, ENGLAND. 
Genus CAalcis. 
This genus comes next to Smcra, which has the greatest development 
of the peculiar characters of the family Chalcididae, such as the compact 
antenne, the robust body, the large quadrate prothorax, and the much 
dilated hind thighs. In all these characters, this family agrees with 
Leucospidae, from which it totally differs in the structure of the abdomen, 
and the two families have a supremacy of structure which is not wholly 
shared by any other in the tribe Chatididae. Chalcis is followed by 
Haltichella. In the latter, which attains its largest size in Australia, the 
above structure is less prominent, the insertion of the antennæ descends 
from the snout towards the mouth, and the flagellum is more whip-like 
and has more active vibration, and resembles that of some species of 
Æncyrtus, to which genus Haltichella has also a resemblance in the short- 
ness of the ulna vein. Unlike Swicra, which chiefly dwells in S. America, 
Chalcis is spread somewhat equally and extensively over the globe. It 
consists of numerous forms which are generally closely allied to each 
other in structure and colouring, and are not easily distinguishable, and 
suggest the idea that species are now determinate and concise by the 
obliteration of former links, and that in some cases these links are not 
yet extinct. The respective differences of these species require to be 
concisely shown in a synopsis. In a few forms the abdomen of the female 
departs much from the usual structure, the apical part being attenuated 
and nearly cylindrical; an example of this occurs in the Amazon region 
and another in Arabia. In another case the male has pectinated antenne, 
and has been considered as a distinct genus. C. Æealegon, an Australian 
species, has red antennæ and a red abdomen, and thus differs remarkably 
from the rest, the colour being almost always black, the legs varied with 
yellow and sometimes partly red. C. #éinuta, a Canadian species, occurs 
in England and is more frequent in S. Europe ; it also inhabits the U.S., 
and is probably identical with C. annulipes, so named from West Indian 
Specimens, and it may be supposed to have spread northward in both 
continents, and we have but to assume a continuous belt of tropic land 
in former times, round the globe and connecting continents in the Atlantic 
and Pacific, and alternate change of climate, and then the more or less 
extent of insect species becomes a mere question of time. C. /lavipes 
