ASHMEAD : CLASSIFICATION OF THE CHALCID FLIES 333 



Haliday thought Cratonuis was allied to the Perilampidse and placed it in that 

 family, an unnatural position for it. It is a true Pteromalid and falls into the sub- 

 family Sphegigasterinse, as is abundantly proved by the discovery of my genus Para- 

 caratomus. 



Nothing is positivel}'^ known of the hal )its of this minor group, but I suspect that 

 the group is parasitic upon the larva3 of beetles. 



TABLE OF GENERA. 

 Head cornuted in front ; face with converging strioe below the insertion of the antennfe ; abdomen short, 



subsessile or briefly petiolate Cratomus Dalman (type Cynips megacephalus Fabr.). 



Head not cornuted ; face with couvei'ging striaj below the insertion of the antennae ; abdomen longly 

 petiolate, the body subcompressed towards apex, the petiole nearly twice as long as the hind coxae. 



Paracaratomus Ashmead (type P. cephalotes Ashm.). 



Subfamily IV. Spalangiin^. 

 1840. Spalangiides, Subfamily? (partim), Westwood, Intro. Mod. Class. Ins., II., 



Synop., p. 66. 

 1856. Spalangoidae, Familie 6 (partim), Forster, Hym. Stud., II., pp. 18, 22 and 40. 

 1875. Spalangiina, Tribus (partim), Thomson, Hym. Skand., IV., pp. 12 and 206. 

 1886. Spalangiinffi, Subfamily (partim), Howard, Ent. Amer., I., p, 198. 

 1897. Spalangiinse, Subfamily IV., Ashmead, Proc. Ent. Soc. Washington, IV., p. 248. 



This .subfamily is quite distinct from all of the others here defined by the 

 peculiar oblong shape of the head, a character found in no other family in the 

 Chalcidoidea, except in the family Agaonidse, although not uncommon among the 

 Aculeales, especially in the superfamily Vespoidea, the oblong head being one of the 

 principal characters that distinguishes the f aniWy Bethylidx ; it is also reproduced in 

 the Chrysididse and occasionally in two or three other families. 



Dr. Forster and others incorrectly placed here the genus Asaphes Walker (= Iso- 

 oratus Forster) ; it is a genuine Pteromaline. 



The subfamily Spalangiinx is readily distinguished by the oblong shape of the 

 head, by the antennae being inserted far anteriorly close to the mouth, by the longer 

 more depressed thorax, by the shape of the pronotum, by the petiolated abdomen, 

 and by the venation of the front wings, the costal cell being long and exceedingly 

 narrow. 



The species of Spalangia are parasitic on dipterous larvos. The species in the 

 other genera, according to the records, destroy coleopterous larvae. 



TABLE OF GENERA. 



1. Females 2 



Males 5 



