THE PHYLOGENY AND ZOOGEOGRAPHY OF THE ENDEMIC GENERA OF THE HAWAIIAN PTEROMALIDAE

of world-wide distribution. Within the subfamily Miscogasterinae, there are 6 endemic genera including 3 new and unique genera which are confined to the Hawaiian Archipel-ago. A complex of 51 species of the endemic genera exhibits remarkable independent development. The ancestral form of the major evolutionary line is believed to have re-sembled the present genus Mesolelaps Ashmead which gave rise to 4 main lines of special-ized groups. A discussion of the phylogenetic characters based on the interrelationship of the propodeum of each group are presented and characters other than the propodeum are supplemented for coherence. Among the Hawaiian Chalcidoidea, the family Pteromalidae is probably the second most important parasite group and yet the least known because of the difficulty encoun-tered in its classification. The tiny parasitic wasps measure from 0.8 to 3.5 mm in length, are usually metallic green to bluish in color, the head and thorax are densely and reticu-lately punctate, the tarsi are 5-segmented, and the parapsidal grooves are incomplete. Pteromalids are parasitic on various stages of a great variety of insects; some species are hyperparasites