030 
THE STUD Y OF INSECTS. 
having the ovipositor of the female curved up over the dor. 
sum of the abdomen to the thorax. Our most common 
species is Leucospis affinis (L. af-fi'nis); this measures about 
three eighths inch in length. 
Family PROCTOTRUPiDiE (Proc-to-tru'pi-dae). 
The Proctolrupids {Proc-to-lru f pids). 
These insects, in spite of their long family name, are the 
smallest of the parasitic Hymenoptera; and in fact the 
smallest of all known insects belongs to this family. The 
larger species rarely exceed one twenty-fifth of an inch in 
length ; the smallest, Alaptus excisns (A-lap'tus ex-ci'sus), 
measures between six and seven one-thousandths of an inch. 
In shape, the body is slender, and the 
color is almost invariably black or 
brown without metallic lustre; the 
prothorax extends back on each side 
to the cup-like scale covering the base 
of the fore wing; the wings are often 
wanting, and when present are en¬ 
tirely veinless, or they may approach 
the venation of some of the Chalcis-flies, or in other cases 
that of some of the Braconidae ; the ovipositor issues from 
the apex of the abdomen. Figure 761 represents a Procto- 
trupid greatly enlarged. 
The Proctotrupids are nearly all parasitic ; and very 
many of them infest the eggs of other insects. The female 
Proctotrupid bores a hole with her ovipositor through the 
shell of an egg of one of the larger insects, and deposits one 
of her eggs inside of it. Here the young parasite when it 
hatches finds itself in the midst of food which is sufficient 
for it till it is fully grown. The transformations are passed 
within the infested egg, from which the parasite comes forth 
an adult. Other species are internal parasites of larvae, 
and some are secondary parasites, that is, parasites upon 
Fig. 761. 
