ON THE GENERA OF THE CHALCID-FLIES BELONGING TO 

 THE SUBFAMILY ENCYRTIN.F:. 



By William H. Ashmead, 



Assisfant Curator, Division of Insects. 



Among tlie many thousands of minute Hyraenopterous insects exist- 

 ing in the world and to which have been giv^en the popular name 

 Chalcid flies, there is probably no single family that is of more interest 

 or of greater economic importance than the family Encyrtid*. 



The species in this family, like the vast majority of other Chalcid-flies, 

 live parasitically in the eggs, larvne, or puiDse of other insects, and hardly 

 a single order of Hexapodous insects is wholly free from their attacks j 

 but in this family, and more especially in the subfamily Encyrtinse, the 

 species are of more than ordinary interest and importance, since so 

 many of them are found attacking and destroying the scale- and bark- 

 lice (Coccid.ie and Aleyrodid*) and the plant lice (Aphididiie and Psyl- 

 lidpe), containing some of the most destructive and troublesome i)ests 

 with which fruit-growers, agriculturists and florists have to contend. 



The subfamilies Eupelminte, Encyrtinie, and SigniphorinsB, the latter 

 based upon my genus Signipliora., established in 18-80, as I have already 

 published elsewhere, constitute a distinct family in the subfamily Chal- 

 cidoidea, to which the family name Encyrtidije should be applied. 



The subfamily Eupelminte was subjected to a generic revision nearly 

 three years ago by the present author, and was published in the Pro- 

 ceedings of the Washington Entomological Society for 1898. He now 

 presents a similar work on the subfamily Encyrtinse 



The manuscript, as originally written, with the above title, was read 

 before the Washington Entomological Society, May 13, 1897. Since 

 that time, however. Dr. L. O. Howard^ has characterized a number of 

 new genera in the group, and the paper has been withheld from publi- 

 cation, in order to incorporate the new genera and to make certain 

 necessary changes in nomenclature. 



The family Encyrtidse is readily distinguished from all others in the 



' Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XXI, 1898, p. 231. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. XXII— No. 1202. 



323 



