CHA'LCIDES, Daudin'e name for a family of Lizards, which, like the Seps-Lizards, are very long and serpent-like ; hut whose scales, instead of being imbricated or disposed like tiles, are rectangular, and form, like those of the tail in the ordinary transverse Linde which do not intrench upon each other. Some, says Cuvier, have a ridge on each side of the trunk, and the tympanum still very apparent. They approach the Cordyli, as the Sops-Lizards approach the Scinks, and lead by several relations to the Sheltopusicka and Ophiaauri. The Chalcides have four legs, but they are little developed, and the extremities may he considered as in a degree rudimentary ; for some of them cannot be said to be furnished with more than one well formed toe on each foot, though there are traces or rudiments of more. Cuvier thus arranges the family : A species with five toes from the East Indies, Lacerta Sep, of Linmeus.
A species with four toes, Lacerta tetradactyla of Lac6pede ; Chalcis tetradactyla. The genus Tetradactylus of Merrem ; Saurophis of Fitzinger.
A section which have the tympanum concealed, and leading directly to the Bemana (Chirotes), and thence to the Amphisbeence. Of these, there is a species with five toes, forming the genus Chalcidcs of Fitzinger.
A species from Brazil, with four toes before, and five behind, Ileterodactylas imbricatas of Spix.
A species with four toes on each foot, forming the genus Brachypus of Fitzinger.
A species from Guyana, with five toes before, and three behind, but reduced to small tubercles so little visible that the species has been regarded at one time as having three toes, and at another as having but one. Cuvier adds, tlfat on the first supposition, it is the Chalcide of Istc4pbde, pL mil; the Chamasaura Cophias of Schneider; the genus Chalcis of Merrem; and the genus Cophias of Fitzinger; and that upon the second hypothesis, it is the Chalcide monodactyle of Daudin ; the genus Colobus of Merrem ; but, adds Cuvier, all these genera resolve themselves into a single species.
CHALCI'DIDtE, a family of Hymenopterous Insects, of the section Pup irora (Latreille). Nearly all the species are exceedingly minute. Many are very brilliant, their colours consisting of various shades of green, blue, or copperlike hues ; in some of the sections however black ie the prevailing colour. The thorax is usually large in pro portion to the body, and the latter is often of a compressed form, and joined to the thorax by a distinct long petiole or stalk, as in Chalcis claripes, which is one of the largest of the British species, measuring from tip to tip of the wings tvhen exptuided upwards of half an inch ; it is of a dull black colour, and remarkable for the exces sive development of the eoxiss and femora of the hinder legs; the latter are of a reddish hue, and armed with eight little teeth beneath; the hinder tibia are curved. It is found on the leaves of shrubs in marshy situations.
In the species just described the oviduct is short, and hidden beneath the abdomen, a circumstance very common in this tribe ; in some however the oviduct is very long, equalling or exceeding the body in length. This is the case in the genus Callimome, a group the species of which have very brilliant colours, principally green, and deposit their eggs in the larvae of the Gall Insects (Cynipid(c), an operation which their long bristle-like ovipositors enable them readily to perform. Here, as in the genus Chalcis, the body is compressed.
Many of the species however have that part depressed. One of the most striking characters in the Chalcididce is in the wings, which are almost destitute of nervuree. Most commonly there is in the superior wing a single nervure springing from the base and running parallel with the exterior margin for about one-third of the whole length of the wing. It then slopes upwards and joins the margin itself; and a little beyond the part where the slope takes place there is a small short ramification thrown out obliquely, which is generally thickened towards the extremity, and forms a little dark spot. The antennas are always elbowed, that is, the terminal joints aro bent forward at an angle with the basal joint. We have observed that when these little insects are about to leap, which a great portion of them have the power of doing, they invariably bend their antenna: under the body, and it appeared that this organ was used in tanking the spring. If this should be the case, it would be a most extraordinary use to make of them parts, which are usually con sidered either as organs of hearing or touch. We may observe that the species which we found to possess this power in a high degree immensely mmemely thick antennae, and the hind legs, the usual leaping organs, do not appear at all adapted for that purpose, nor can we discover any other part that is Although in C. daripes (the species figured) the hinder femora are thick, yet it does not possess the power o leaping; and when we examine the structure of this part, we find that it differs much from the thickened thigh of leaping insects It is formed upon the same typo as the same part iu some of the Donacia tribe (among beetles), which appears to be used for clinging ; and this 'pecks, inhabiting marshy situations, would probably require such a clinging apparatus for the same reason as the Donocim do, namely, to keep them from falling into the water. A figure of the leg of a species of Donacim is given, to show the resemblance both in the femur and curved tibia.
The Chalcididce are all parasitical in their larva state. Some are so minute as to undergo their metamorphosis in the eggs of other insects. The chrysalides of some of the lepidopterous insects not unfroquently form the nidus of an immense number of those little insects. Ono species of Chalets generally confines its attacks to the chrysalis of one species of lepidopterous insects; but occasionally we have reared more than one species of the Chakididce from the same chrysalis.
Mr. Walker, a gentleman who has written much on this group of insects, looks upon it as a great section of Hymenoptera rather than a family, and his views appear to us correct. Tho Chalcididce are divided by him into two sections, which ho calls Chalcides Pentanteri and CAakides Tetranteri, names applied from their having five or four jointed tarsi ; each of these sections is again subdivided into several families, the species of which are exceedingly numerous. Mr. West wood, who, as well as Mr. Walker, has paid great attention to this inter esting group, states that there are probably 1500 species in Eugland.
ClIALCOLITE, a mineral of a green colour containing Uranium. [URANIUM.]