0Q() [December, 



DESCRIPTION OF A NEW ICHNEUMONID. 

 BY T. A. MARSHALL, F.E.S. 



A rather large black leliiieumonid with long ovipositor, taken in 

 tlie Forest of Moute d'Oro, Cortiica, by Col. Zerbury in 1893, has 

 been for some years in Mr. Bignell's collection. It is worthy of 

 special notice as a new form, remarkable for the incrassation of the 

 front tibiae, a character not entirely unknown in the group of Xorides, 

 or even in that of Cryptus, but nowhere developed to the same extent 

 as in the present instance, so far as I am aware. It belongs to Forster's 

 genus Nyxeopliilus, placed by that author among his Cryptoidce, but 

 wanting several of the characters necessary to maintain it in that 

 situation. It is now better arranged by Ashmead in his tribe Xori- 

 dini, and in close proximity to Echthrus, with which it has a nearer 

 connection than with the Cryptus-gYO\x\). As the genus has received 

 no further illustration than the synoptical indications of Forster and 

 Ashmead, and is probably quite unknown, it may be useful to add 

 such characters as may conduce to its more easy identification in 

 future. The specimen is now before me, kindly lent by Mr. Biguell, 

 to whom I had expressed my desire to bring it forward at the forth- 

 coming scientific conference at Ajaccio, Sept. 8 — 1-i. 



Genus NYXEOPHILUS. 



Forster, Synops. der Fam. u. Gatt. d. Ichn., p. 187. 



Ashmead, Classif. of the Ichn. -Flies, p. 60. 

 $ . Head transversely subquadrate above, somewhat buccate posteriorly, as 

 broad as the thorax. Clypeus very small, remote from the mandibles, and not 

 closing the mouth. Antennae slender, filiform, rather longer than head and thorax. 

 Parapsidal furrows deep, ending in a fovea before reaching the scutellum. *Meta- 

 thorax with a small triangular areola superomedia, narrowly connected with a larger 

 subcircular posteromedia. An abbreviated carina on either side, just above the 

 spiracle, reaches neither the base nor the apex. Spiracles subcircular. Only one 

 transverse carina, circular, and near the apex, separates the disc of the metathorax 

 from the posterior declivity, which is very small. Areolet large, pentagonal (as in 

 Echthrus and many Cryptids) ; praebrachiaj cell a little longer than the pobrachial ; 

 dividing nervure between 1st cubital cell and 1st discoidal commenced in form of a 

 stump ; pobrachial transverse nervure of hind-wing broken above the middle. Fore- 

 legs short, their femora bent, compressed, and iucrassated, attenuated towards the 

 apex ; tibiae about half as long as the tarsi, attenuated near the base, with a con- 

 spicuous pyriform intumescence occupying more than the apical half ; 1st joint of 



* Micro-Anatuniy teaches that the so-called metathorax is in reality the first segment of the 

 abdomen, and tliat its naniu should be changed aocoi'dingly. The change, however, would prove 

 so highly inconvenient, throwing out of gear so many thousands of existing descriptions, that 

 any one may well hesitate t(j adopt it. It will be better to retain the old word, to be read with 

 a silent consciousness that it does not mean what it says.— T. A. M. 



