PTEROMALIDAE OF N.W. EUROPE 95 



he has written " pea "; to the right of the specimen is mounted a Dipterous pupa- 

 rium ; this must be the specimen to which Walker referred. It seems unlikely 

 that Haliday, who was an outstanding Dipterologist, made a mistake about his 

 rearing of oxylus, but it would be interesting to have a confirmation of this host 

 record. Imagines May to September in Britain. 



MISCOGASTERINAE 



Miscogasteridae was originally proposed as a family-group name by Walker 

 (1833 : 370). Forster (1856 : 51) used it (as Miscogastroidae) to include a number 

 of genera some of which are currently referred to Pteromalinae. Thomson (1878 : 

 216) emended the name to Mischogastrides, which he regarded as a subtribe of his 

 tribe Pteromalina. Ashmead (1904 : 270) again raised Miscogasteridae to family 

 rank; his concept of the limits of the group (with some exceptions) makes some 

 approach to that adopted in the present work. More recently the view has gained 

 support that the group is of tribal, or at most of subfamily, rank within the family 

 Pteromalidae. Thus it is regarded as a tribe of Sphegigasterinae by Peck (1963 : 

 606) ; and as a subfamily by Peck et al. (1964 : 36). My own concept of the subfamily 

 Miscogasterinae is somewhat similar to the view of the latter authors, except that I 

 exclude Asaphinae as being a separate subfamily, but include Pirenini and Tridymini, 

 which they place together with Eunotini to form a separate subfamily Tridyminae. 

 At present I recognize 8 tribes within Miscogasterinae: Micradelini, Pirenini, 

 Termolampini, Ormocerini ( = Tridymini), Brachyscelidiphagini, Trigonoderini, 

 Sphegigasterini, and Miscogasterini, of which the Brachyscelidiphagini is not 

 represented in Europe. At an earlier stage of my work I sought to define some of 

 these tribes as subfamilies, but found the limits between them so slight, even when 

 only the European fauna was considered, that the attempt proved impracticable. 

 For example, some Pirenini approach extremely closely to Ormocerini through the 

 genus Gastrancistrus ; some Ormocerini (e.g., Ormocerus) are near to certain 

 Miscogasterini; whilst some of the latter are not far removed from such genera of 

 Sphegigasterini as Polycystus and Toxeuma. Halticoptera and some other genera 

 have often been regarded as constituting a separate tribe or even subfamily ; but I 

 have been forced to unite them with Miscogasterini because of the existence of 

 intermediate forms. In this connection it is interesting to note that Peck (1963) 

 regards Halticopterini as a separate tribe, but places Bubeckia, a genus which I 

 consider extremely close to Halticoptera, in the tribe Miscogasterini. 



Brachyscelidiphagini, a tribe not dealt with here, is better represented in the 

 southern hemisphere where (especially in Australasia) there are some very aberrant 

 forms. The group is very difficult to define and its characters need to be re-assessed ; 

 it appears to come nearest to Ormocerini. Gahan & Ferriere who revised this 

 tribe (1947 : 271-302) stated (ibid. : 272) " It is not easy to define this group. While 

 the various forms have a common habitus somewhat different from other Chalcidoids 

 and by which they can usually be recognized at sight, there appears to be no 

 structural character common to all of them which is not duplicated somewhere else 



