Clje Canadian fctomologist. 



VOL. XIX. LONDON, MAY, 1887. No. 5 



ORYSSUS SAYI, Westwood. 



BY W. HAGUE HARRINGTON, OTTAWA. 



At the Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of Ontario in 

 October, 1885, I read a brief note on Oryssus Sayi, which was afterwards 

 published in the Canadian Entomologist (vol, xviii., page 30). It re- 

 corded the capture of two $ and one $ on cedar telegraph poles, and 

 suggested that they might have emerged therefrom. During the early 

 summer of 1886, I added several specimens of Oryssus to my collection, 

 and what is of much more importance, succeeded in gaining a more 

 definite knowledge of the habits of our species. As no account, other 

 than the brief note just cited, has ever appeared in the Entomologist of 

 these handsome and interesting insects, I propose to give a brief paper 

 upon them. 



The genus was established by Latreille, according to Westwood (Intro- 

 duction to the Modern Classification of Insects, vol. ii. app., page 55), and 

 Lucas (Dictionnaire Universel d'Histoire Naturelle, vol. ix., page 230), 

 although Norton, in his Catalogue of the Tenthredinidos and UroceridcC 

 of North America (Trans. Am. Ent. Soc, vol. ii., page 350), and Cresson 

 (idem vol. viii , page 48) credit it to Fabricius, as does also Provancher 

 (Petite Faune Entomologique du Canada, vol. ii., page 237). 



Westwood, in his generic synopsis of British Hymenoptera, loc. cit., 

 gives the following characteristics : — 



Oryssus Latr., one British species, type O. coronatiis Latr.; cylindri- 

 cal ; antennae ^ ii-jointed, % lo-jointed ; max. palpi long, 5-jointed; 

 ovipositor spiral, capillary. 



Norton gives the generic features in more detail as follows : — 



" Wings with one marginal and two submarginal cells, the first with two 

 recurrent nervures \ lanceolate cell closed ; under wings without inner 

 cell. Antenna inserted at the nasus, lo-jointed in female, Ti-jointed in 

 male (Hartig says: $ ii-jointed, ^ i2-jointed)j the third and sixth 

 longest, the joint before the last thickened. Head large, rounded, wider 

 than thorax. Mandibles short ; labrum entire with two slight lateral im- 



