\\xii, '211 ENTOMOLOGICAl \K\YS 291 



thorax are beset with large, more or less symmetrically disposed, pore- 

 like areas and the lateral margins of the meso- and metanota are cast 

 into distinct ridges. Mesothoracic spiracles surrounded by a large, 

 reticulated area. Cauda (Fig. E) distinctly knobbed and anal plate 

 deeply bilobed, both the cauda and the anal plate with several rather 

 long setae. Beak not discernible in the specimens examined. Legs as 

 in the preceding stage. Cornicles lacking. Abdominal spiracles lacking. 



Type host and locality. From Oncrcns agrifolia near Chit- 

 tenden, Santa Cruz County, California, April 28, 1921. Holo- 

 type and paratypes and type material in the Stanford Uni- 

 versity collection. 



Notes. The entire absence of cornicles will place this species 

 in Baker's trihe Hormaphidini, which contains but two genera, 

 Hormaphis and Hamamelistes. The present species agrees none 

 too closely with either of these genera, but is perhaps nearer the 

 latter. 



A considerable quantity of material has been examined, but 

 only the three stages described above have been found. Per- 

 gande has described three nymphal stages for the corresponding 

 forms of both Hormaphis hamamelidis and Hamamelistes spiu- 

 osus. Living examples of all the stages were present. None of 

 the adults appeared to contain young. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE VI. 



Hamamelistes (?) agrifoliae n. sp. : A, adult; B, second stage; C, 

 first stage; D, antenna of first stage; E, cauda and anal plate of adult; 

 F, G, anterior (or middle) and posterior legs of second stage; H, leg 

 of first stage. 



The Mating Habits of Megarhyssa (Hym., Ichneumonidae). 

 In the October issue of the NEWS, A. B. Champlain reports "the 

 discovery of the curious mating habit of M cimrh^ssu <//<<//</." stating 

 that "very little seems to have been recorded concerning the mating 

 habits of the Ichneumonoids." Attention is called to the fact that 

 the habit described by Champlain was described by Mr. George Gade, 

 in 1884, in Vol. VII, p. 103, of the bulletin of 'the Brooklyn Ento- 

 mological Society, for a closely related species, called by him Pini^j 

 ( A'//v.v.v(j) htnator, as follows: "The males are often observed con- 

 grtgated upon an apparently sound part of a tree: scraping away bark- 

 sometimes to a depth of ^ inch the 9 was found ready to emerge. 

 Retiring, the males at once returned and one finally succeeded in 

 copulating with the 9 while yet she was in the cell or burrow. Thcv 

 remain but a short time in copulu then the 9 completes lur exil 

 from the larval habitation, and flies about, further unmoU-sted \>\ the 

 $, in search of a suitable tree upon which to oviposit." I 

 BARLOW, Rhode Island State College, Kingston, R. I. 



