ASHMEAD : CLASSIFICATION OF THE CHALCID FLIES 335 



3. Abdomen ovate ; metathorax large, with delicate, irregular raised lines ; second abdominal segment 



large, occupying fully one third or more of the whole surface of abdomen, the follqwing segments 

 short, subequal Dipara Walker (type D. petiolata Walk.). 



4. Petiole linear, longer than the hind coxae 5 



Petiole shorter, not longer than the hind coxse. 



Antennae filiform, not verticellate, pilose Panstenon Walker. 



5. Antennae with the joints of the flagellum well separated, subpedunctate and somewhat verticellate- 



pilose ; body of abdomen oval or rounded, the second segment occupying fully one half the whole 

 surface Dipara Walker. 



Family LXX. ELASMID^. 



1840. Eulopliides, Subfamily 5 (partim), Westwood, Intro. Mod. Class. Ids., II. ; 



Synop., p. 73. 

 18 1(). Eulophidae, Family II. (partim), Walker, List Chalc. Brit. Museum, I., p. 61. 

 1856. Elasmoidse, Familie 17, Forster, Hym. Stud., II., pp. 19, 25 and 71. 

 1878. Elasmina, Tribus, Thomson, Hym. Skand., V., p. 180. 

 1886. Elasminse, Subfamily, Howard, Ent. Amer., I., p. 198. 

 1897. Elasmidse, Family LXX., Ashmead, Proc. Ent. Soc. Washington, IV., p. 236. 



This family is not closely allied to any other, although, on account of the 

 4-jointed tarsi, and the flabellate antennae in the males, it deceptively resembles the 

 family Eulophidse. Structurally, however, the two families are totally distinct, the 

 thorax, the front wings, the legs and the abdomen being quite diflerent in these 

 families. 



In mesothoracic and abdominal characters the Elasmidse show some affinity 

 with the Kncyrtidx, but the relationship, if it ever existed, must have been very re- 

 mote, in ages past, and it is not now traceable in the forms thus far discovered. 



The group is easily recognized by the compressed, triangular shape of the body 

 and abdomen, by the longer and narrower wings, by the venation, the marginal 

 vein being usually, although not always, very long, with the stigmal vein very short, 

 and by the abnormally developed legs, the hind coxce being very large, strongly 

 compressed, disk-like, the hind femora being rather stout, the tibiae and tarsi being 

 very slender, the latter being very long. 



The species of Elasmus attack usually lepidopterous larva3, but some have also 

 been bred from microgasterid cocoons and from other insects. The Australia genus 

 Euryischia Howard, attacks dipterous larvae. 



TABLE OF GENERA. 



1. Females 2 



Males 3 



