SMICBA.— PHASGANOPHOKA. 97 



black ; there is a narrow black line running down the centre and dividing the yellow 

 in two ; the apex is sharply rounded and entire. Metanotum distinctly reticulated. 

 Petiole thick, and scarcely one half of the length of the posterior coxae. The four 

 anterior coxae and femora are for the greater part yellow on lower side, and the latter 

 are lined with black behind. The posterior femora are yellow on the outside, except 

 at the apices and a large bell-shaped mark in the middle which are black ; on the inner 

 side they are black, with a yellow mark at the apex ; the teeth are seventeen in number, 

 are closely pressed and indistinct at the base, and become larger towards the apex ; 

 the extreme base of the hind tibiae is black ; the yellow mark on it does not extend to 

 the inner side. 



PHASGANOPHOEA. 



Phasganophora, Westwood in Griffith's Animal Kingdom, Insects, ii. p. 432, t. 77. f. 2 (1832) ; 



Walker, Entomologist, i. p. 138 (1840); Sichel, Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr. p. 357 (1866). 

 Trigonura, Sichel, loc. cit. p. 358. 



The typical representatives of this genus or subgenus have the antennae inserted in 

 the middle of the face, and the abdomen sessile as in Chalcis, and merely differ from 

 that well-known genus in the apical abdominal segments being prolonged into a " tail," 

 which forms a sheath for the ovipositor. This is the division of " Phasganophorw 

 chalcidiformes " of Sichel, and to it the subgenus Trigonura belongs, it differing merely 

 from typical Phasganophora in the tail being "depressa, subtriangularis." This 

 section might also be referred to the genus Conura, Spinola, which, as denned by Sichel, 

 contains species with a sessile abdomen = Conurce chalcidiformes, and with it petiolated 

 = Conurce smicriformes ; the sole difference of any value between Conura and Phasga- 

 nophora consisting in the tail, " formee chez les Conura par le cinquieme segment et 

 l'epipygium, allonges et retrecis d'un cote a 1' autre, sans aucune participation de 1'hypo- 

 pygium," while with Phasganophora the hypopygium alone forms the " tail." I find, 

 nowever, so many transitions in this respect, that the value of this character does not 

 appear to me to be of much importance ; and it is, moreover, a purely sexual one. To 

 Phasganophora Sichel adds another subgenus, Allocera, remarkable for having the 

 antennae inserted immediately over the mouth = Phasganophorw halticellceformes. It 

 would thus appear that species having the apical segments of the abdomen elongated 

 exist which have the characters of Chalcis, Halticella, and Smicra ; and in separating 

 them we must either give paramount importance to the form of the tail, or to such 

 points as the manner in which the antennae and abdomen are inserted. It seems to me 

 that as the latter characters are common to both sexes, they are of the most importance 

 for taxonomic purposes, especially as the structure of the tail is not constant. Walker 

 (' Notes on Chalcididae,' p. 39) combines Phasganophora, Allocera, and Trigonura with 

 Ealticella. Andre (Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr. 1881, p. 337) would unite the Phasganophorw 

 chalcidiformes and the Conurce chalcidiformes with Chalcis, the Phasganophora smicri- 



biol. CENT.R.-AMEK., Hymenopt., July 1884. oo 



K. 



3\ 



