122 t"^""^' 



surviving wasps repaired damages to the nest and kept going for some 

 weeks, but eventually disappeared, owing, presumably, to the queen 

 having been lost. Unlike V. vulgaris, which uses rotten wood, V. nor- 

 vegica and most, if not all, of ;the other British species use sound 

 wood, but I did not see where these specimens obtained their materials. 



Although Ichneumons were plentiful in the district, I cannot say 

 that I met with any rare species. Cratichneumon dissimilis and 

 Tryphon ejjhijjpium are probably the best, and I also got a couple of 

 Anomalon cerinops ; all these were on Heracleum. Ichnetimo7i exten- 

 sorius and sarcitorms, and Gtenichnenmon divisorius were common on 

 Pastinaca, and it was interesting to notice how alert these conspicuous 

 Ichneunioninae were, and how quick to dodge beneath the flower-heads 

 at the collector's approach, by which move they often escaped the pill- 

 box just as it was closing over them. 



In the foregoing lines I have, of course, omitted the commoner 

 species of all Orders, mentioning only those I thought woi'thy of some 

 notice. 



35, The Aveuue, 



Hale End, Chingford 

 February, 1917. 



SITARJDA WHIT'E = NEPHRITES SHUCKARD (FAM. MEIOIDAE). 



BY K. G. BLAIE, F.E.S. 



(Published by permissiou of the Trustees of the British Museum.) 



In response t(i a suggestion by Mr. A. M. Lea, of the Adelaide 

 Museum, I have compared the type of Sifarida minor Champ. (1895) 

 with the description of Nejihrites nitidus Shuckard. The diagnosis of 

 the last-named genus is very detailed and agrees in every respect with 

 the insect before me ; the descrijjtion of the species, on the other hand, is 

 brief, but, so far as it goes, also applies to Mr. Champion's specimen. 

 The latter was taken by Commander Walker at Hobart, Tasmania, and 

 as Van Diemen's Land is the locality given by Shuckard, there can be 

 little doubt that the two species are identical. 



Mr. Champion described his insect as a d . probably on account of the 

 pectinate antennae and the slender protruding ovipositor which he took 

 to be the aedeagus ; but Wellman (Canad. Ent. xl, 1908, p. 424) 

 expressed doubt as to the correctness of this view, and suggested, 



