Bulletin 124

//r SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM Bulletin 124 THE TYPE SPECIES OF THE GENERA OF CHALCIDOIDEA OR CHALCID-FLIES BY A. B. GAHAN and MARGARET M. PAGAN Of the Bureau of Entomeloiy United States Department of Agriculture .^^xm '«s"/^^^^ aT5-fci'^.,^V **^J> ;* Hiijea ! WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1923 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM Bulletin 124 THE TYPE SPECIES OF THE GENERA OF CHALCIDOIDEA OR CHALCID-FLIES A. B. GAHAN and MARGARET M. FAGAN Of the Bureau of Entomology United States Department of Agriculture WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1923 ADDITIONAL COPIES OF THIS PtTBLICATION MAY BE PROCURED FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASmNGTON, D. C. AT 15 CENTS PER COPY PURCHASER AGREES NOT TO RESELL OR DISTRIBUTE THIS COPY FOR PROFIT.—PUB. RES. 57, APPROVED MAY 11, 1922 ADVERTISEMENT. The scientific publications of the United States National Museum consist of t'wo series, the Proceedings and the Bulletins. The Proceedings^ the first volume of "which was issued in 1878, are intended primarily as a medium for the publication of original, and usually brief, papers based on the collections of the National Museum, jDresenting newly acquired facts in zoology, geology, and anthro- pology, including descriptions of new forms of animals, and revisions of limited groups. One or two volumes are issued annually and distributed to libraries and scientific organizations. A limited number of copies of each paper, in pamphlet form, is distributed to specialists and others interested in the different subjects, as soon as printed. Tlie dates of publication are recorded in the tables of contents of the volumes. The BuUetrns^ the first of which was issued in 1875, consist of a series of separate publications comprising chiefly monographs of large zoological groups and other general systematic treatises (occasionally in several volumes), faunal works, reports of expeditions, and catalogues of type-specimens, special collections, etc. The ma- jority of the volumes are octavos, but a quarto size has been adopted in a few instances in which large plates were regarded as indis- pensable. Since 1902 a series of octavo volumes containing papers relating to the botanical collections of the jMuseum, and known as the Contribu- tions froin the National Herljanum^ has been published as bulletins. The present work fonns No. 124 of the Bulletin series. WiiiiAM deC. Ravenel, Admin/sirafive Assistant to the Secretary in charge of the United States National Museum. Washington, D. C, March 1, 1923. THE TYPE SPECIES OF THE GENERA OF CHALCI- DOIDEA OR CHALCID FLIES. By A. B. Gahan and Margaret M, Fagan. Of the Bureau of Entomology, United States Department of Agriculture. INTRODUCTION. The modern tendency toAA'ard finer and finer "generic division, as Avell as the practical limitation of human ability to describe com- pletely and correctly, make it not only advisable, but in many instances absolutely necessary, to have some ultimate basis for deciding the characters of a genus. This can only be had by the fixing of a definite species as type of each genus. The importance of genotype fixation is now very generally recognized by zoologists, only a small minority still continuing to propose new genera without indication of a type species. In the Hymenop- terous superfamily Chalcidoidea the importance of type fixation was recognized by several of the early writers, notably Latreille, West- wood, Curtis, and Kirby. Various othei's occasionally indicated genotypes, but few did so consistently, and not until the publication by Ashmead of his work on the Classification of Chalcid Flies was any serious attempt made to establish types for all the genera. Even Ashmead confined his citations of types to genera which he considered to be valid and ignored for the most part those which he considered to be synonj^ms. Not a few of the fixations indicated by him are erroneous by reason of earlier fixations or because they do not fully conform to the established rules governing such fixations. Ashmead listed 901 generic names, including synonyms. In re- cent years many new genera have been erected, the descriptions of which are scattered through a large number of publications, some with designated or automatically fixed genotypes, but a considerable number still without definitely established type species. There is at present available no publication making readily accessible the references to descriptions of many of these genera, and it is also fre- quently a matter of considerable difficulty to ascertain the genotype species of a given genus. t : 2 BULLETIISr 124, UXITED STATES NATIOXAL MUSEUM. The writers have attempted in the following pages to present a complete catalogue of all of the known generic names referred to this large and important superfamily, with the indication in every case of what we believe to be the correct genotype, using as the basis for the compilation Dalla Torre's Catalogus Hymenopterorum, Chalcididae, and tlie extensive card index of genera and species maintained by the Hymenoptera section of the Division of Insects of the United States National Museum. The list includes a total of 1,911 generic names, inclusive of 98 emendations, or considerably over double the number listed by Ash- mead in 1904. No doubt some errors and omissions have been made in spite of the fact that every effort has been made to avoid such. We hope that such errors as may have crept in will be viewed char- itably, and that students of Chalcidoidea will find the catalogue not only reasonabl}' correct but helpful in the difficult task of classifying and determining these interesting if minute insects. References and conclusions set forth in every instance, except M'here otherwise noted, have been arrived at by consulting original publications. The rules and opinions of the International Commis- sion on Zoological Nomenclature have served as the guide in solving all nomenclatorial questions. Correctior.s of what we believe to be erroneous previous type fixations have, in a few unfortunate instances, resulted in changing the current interpretations of well-known genera. A case in point, and the most deplorable of all, is that making necessary the use of the generic name Chalcis for the group previously known as Smiera or Smiera, and requiring that the group of species previously placed under Chalcis be known by a different name; that is, Brachymeria. The reasons for this change, as well as for other similar ones, are set forth in notes under the generic names affected. The number of such radical changes is not large and such as do occur simply demon- strate the need for a catalogue of the character here presented. This paper is a contribution from the Branch of Cereal and Forage Crop Insects of the Bureau of Entomology of the United States Department of Agriculture. (,'ITATIONS TO LITERATURE. With the exceptions of the three publications listed below all citations to literature are given in full in the body of the catalogue wherever necessary. For reasons of economy of space it was not deemed necessary in the case of the three following standard works to repeat each time the full citation, and where the following references occur the publications indicated are meant Ashmead, 1904=Ashmea(l, W. H.—Classification of the Chalcid Flies. Memoirs Carnegie Museum, vol. 1, 1904. : LIST OF TYPE SPECIES OF CHALCID-FLJES. 3 Dalla Torre, 1898=Dalla Torre, C. G. de. —Catalogus Hymenopterorum, vol. 5, 1898. Westwood, 1840, Synopsis=Westwood, J. O.—lutrodiictioa to Modem Classifi- cation of Insects, vol. 2, 1840. Synopsis of the Genera of British Insects. In a series of privately published pamphlets, A. A. Girault has proposed a number of generic and many specific names. In many cases the descriptions accompanying these names are short and un- satisfactory, but sufficient to validate the names under ordinary cir- cumstances of publication. The pamphlets were distributed by Girault to several libraries and individuals, and advertised for sale by him, while the names were sent, in some instances, to economic workers and others by whom they have been used in papers dealing with the host insects. Type specimens of the species are extant, many of them in the United States National Museum collection. Although believing that new zoological names should be proposed through publication in some scientific journal or other recognized medium of publication, and deprecating especially their publication in a manner such as here indicated, the writers can find no sufficient grounds for refusing to recognize as valid the names in question. Accordingly they have been included in this catalogue with a citation to the title of the paper in which the description occurs and the words " Privately published " in parentheses following the title. Following is a complete list of titles, so far as known, of these privately published pamphlets Speciosissinia Genera Nova Enlophidoriiru, Washington, D. C, March 10, 1917, 4 pp. New Javanese Hymenoptera. Washington, D. C. March 28, 1917, 12 pp. New Chalcid Flies, Gleundale, Md., March 30, 1917, 5 pp. New Eulophidae, Glenndale, Md., March 30, 1917. 1 p. Two New Achrysocharellae. Glenndale, Md., IMarch 30, 1917, 1 p. Descriptiones Stellarum Novarum, May 1, 1917, 22 pp. Descriptiones Hymenopterorum Chalcidoidicarum Variorum cum Observationi- bus. III, Glenndale, Md., May 3, 1917, 10 pp. Clialcidoidea Nova Marilandensis, Glenndale, Md., May 21, 1917, 2 pp. Clialcidoidea Nova Marilandensis, II, Glenndale, Md., June 9, 1917, 2 pp. Descriptiones Hymenopterorum Chalclidoidicarum Variorum cum Observationi- bus, V, Glenndale, Md., August 8, 1917, 16 pp. Chalcidoidea Nova Marilandensis, III, Glenndale, Md., September 22, 1917, 6 pp. North American Hymenoptera Elasmidae, Sydney, Australia, August 1, 1918, 4 pp. North American Hymenoptera Triehogrammatidae, Sydney, Australia, Novem- ber 1, 1918, 11 pp. Hymenoptera Chalcidoidea Nova Australiensis, Brisbane, Australia, November 20, 1919, 3 pp.

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