84 BULLETIN 66, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Reproduction prolific, larviparous. Development endoparasitic 

 and highly hypermetamorphic. Alimentation probably osmotic. 

 Hosts various, hexapodal. First larvae, or triungulinids, campodei- 

 form hexapods. Parasitic stages apodous. Male pupal case, with 

 cephalothorax protruded from the abdomen of the host, is merely 

 the last larval skin with cap-like lid, or cephalotheca. The pupa is 

 similar to those of the Coleoptera and Hymenoptera and lies free in 

 its case. 



Superfamily MENGEOIDEA Pierce, 1908. 



Based on the family Mengeidee. 



Characterized by having the tarsi five-jpinted, and with two tarsal 

 claws. 



1. Family MENGEIDvE Pierce, 1908. 



Based on the genus Mengea Grote (1886), which is fossil in amber. 

 Antennas seven-jointed, third and fourth joints laterally produced. 

 The family contains two genera: 



1. Mengea Grote (188G). Fossil in amber. 



2. Trioxocera Pierce, host genus unknown. Mexico. 



1. Genus MENGEA Grote (1! 

 Trixna Menge 1866 (preoccupied.) 



Type-speeies. — Mengea tertiaria Menge (1866). 



Wings having eight primary veins from base, with one distal unat- 

 tached vein between the subcosta and radius, and with the first and 

 second anal veins apically united. 



1. MENGEA TERTIARIA Menge (1866). 



Trisena tertiaria Menge, 1866. 



Mengea tertiaria Grote, 1886. — Pierce, 1908. 



This species is fossil in amber, belonging to the Tertiary age, and 

 occurring in Germany (pi. 1, fig. 1). 



The following is a translation in part of Menge's original descrip- 

 tion of this species: 



Male. — Length 3 mm., breadth between tips of expanded wings 

 7 mm. Color of body golden brown, wings whitish. Head convex, 

 twice as wide as long. Vertex at apex broadly emarginate, promi- 

 nent laminate. Mandibles short, three edged, apically acute. Maxil- 

 lae short, obtuse, bearing on the side a knife-like, single-jointed, 

 pubescent palpus, which is about three times as long as the maxilla 

 proper. Labial palpi absent. Surface very finely granulate, with 

 scattered darker punctures. Eyes hemispherical, prominent, but not 

 petiolate, with about forty separated ommatidia, each with a hemi- 

 spherical cornea, and arranged in regular lines. Antennas seven- 

 jointed, first joint short, cylindrical; second top-shaped, as long as 



