384 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. 57. 



Morley. — Claude Morley in his recent papers ^ dealing with the 

 insects grouped together as the subfamily Ichneumoninae has offered 

 a number of new suggestions in arrangement and expressed a doubt 

 that all the members are closely related, as the following quotation 

 (la, p. xv) will show: "That the Lissonotides have any close 

 relationship with the typical Pimplides I do not for a moment believe ; 

 the Acoenitides, as at present grouped, are very heterogeneous ; and 

 the Banchides are admittedly aberrant, wherever placed; while 

 the Xoridides, though related to some extent in their thoracic 

 structure with Rhyssa, appear worthy of ranking as a distinct sub- 

 family." 



In 1908 (la) Morley adds the tribe Banchides to his subfamily 

 Pimplinaeandin 1913 (1 6) he raises the genus Rhyssa &nd allies to tribal 

 rank (in 1908 he still had this group in the Pimplini) and makes a 

 tribe, Ecthromorphides, for the genera Lissopimpla and EctliromorpJia. 

 This last tribe is an arbitrary grouping on two variable venational 

 characters and the lengthening of the malar space, the latter so 

 variable as to be of doubtful generic value. 



In his definition of the subfamily Pimplinae (la, p. xvi) he makes 

 use of a secondary sexual character and adds in a qualifying way an 

 extremely variable specific character. The key to the tribes (la, 

 p. 1) makes use of some of the usual characters and one is at a loss to 

 know how the Theronini can be placed in the Pimplides as he defines 

 them. It would seem that Morley has done but little more than offer 

 a rearrangement of names, for when he has given additional characters 

 they are usually of such nature as to be subject to individual varia- 

 tion or are unisexual and should not be used, unsupported, as prime 

 characters of genera or higher groups. 



It must not, however, be implied that we would belittle the work 

 of Morley, because with all its shortcomings it is very useful and 

 clears up many obscure points about the species which are repre- 

 sented in the British Museum by type material, and gives useful keys 

 to distinguish the material in that museum. 



Viereck. — In the recent synopsis of the genera of Ichneu- 

 mon flies of Connecticut, Viereck,^ does away with subfamily divi- 



1 (a) Claude Morley, Ichneumonologia Britannica III. The Ichneumons of Great Britain, etc., Pim- 

 plinae, 1908, H. and W. Brown, London, England, pp. i-xvi, 1-328. 



(6) Claude Morley, A revision of the Ichneumonidae Based on the collection of the British Museum, part 

 2, Tribes Rhyssides and Echthromorphides, 1913, London, pp. i-vi, 1-48. 

 (c) Claude Morley, Idem., part 3, tribe Pimplides, 1914, pp. i-viii, 1-122. 

 (<?) Claude Morley, Idem., part 4, tribe Banchides, 1915, pp. ix-x, 135-151. 



2 H. L. Viereck, The Hymenoptera, or Wasp-Uke Insects, of Connecticut, 1917, Bull. 22, Geol.and Nat. 

 Hist. Survey Conn., pp. 243-326. 



