ASHMEAD : CLASSIFICATION OF THE CHALCID FLIES 361 



Veins of front wings forming a regular arch ; flagellum filiform Poropoea Forster. 



Veins of front wings not forming a regular arch Trichogramma Westwood. 



11. Antennae 6-jointed or less 12 



Antennae 7-jointed. 



Wings with a very long marginal fringe .Chsetostricha Haliday. 



Wings with a short marginal fringe. 



Club of antennae 4-jointed Lathromeris Forster. 



Club of antennae 3-jointed Pentarthron Riley. 



12. Antennae 6-jointed (scape, pedicel, a 1-jointed funicle and a 3-jointed club), marginal vein about 



thrice as long as the stigmal Centrobia Forster. 



Antennae 3-jointed (scape, pedicel and a long, solid club) ; marginal vein not more than twice the 

 length of the stigmal vein Aprobosca Westwood (type A. erosicornis Westw.). 



Family LXXIII. MYMARID^. 



1833. Mymares, Tribus 5'*, Haliday, Ent. Mag., I., p. 341. 



1839. Mymaridse, Family 17, Haliday, Hym. Syn., p. II. 



1840. Mymarides, Subfamily 6 (Family Proctotrypidse), Westwood, Intro. Mod. 



Class. Ins. Synop., p. 78. 

 1856. Mymaroidse, Familie 28, Forster, Hym. Stud., II., pp. 20, 27 and 116. 

 1897. Mymaridse, Family LXXIII., Ashmead, Proc. Ent. Soc. Washington, IV., p. 

 236. 



This group was correctly defined by A. H. Haliday, first as a tribe and after- 

 wards as a distinct family. 



In 1833 in speaking of it he says: "This tribe comprises the very atoms of the 

 order Hymenoptera. Their hues are mostly black or yellowish, unadorned by 

 metallic splendor : the plumed and iridescent Avings of many are beautiful objects 

 for the microscope. The males, by their very long and slender antennae (sometimes 

 more than twice the length of the body), resemble Ichneumons in miniature." 



Every species belonging to the family lives pai-asitically in the eggs of other 

 insects, and in habits agree with the Trichogrammidse. 



Stephens, Curtis, Walker, Westwood, Forster, Thomson and most systematists 

 treat the group as a component of the Proctoiryipoidea and Dr. von Dalla Torre in 

 his Catalogus Hymenopterorum follows these older authorities and treats it as a sub- 

 family in the Prodotrypidee. More than ten years ago I pointed out the structural 

 characters that excluded the group from having any affinity with these insects ; 

 they are widely distinct in many particulars and form a compact natural family in 

 the Chalcidoidea, as was first pointed out by Haliday so many years ago. My exten- 

 sive studies into all groups of the Hymenoptera have only confirmed and empha- 

 sized the correctness and soundness of Haliday's views, the ablest systematist of 

 his day, and his views should prevail. 



