176 cJ^iy' 



segment also affords a valuable character. In ccdspititiella it is 

 particularly stiff and rigid, the chitinous or skeletal portion being 

 well developed, both as regards thickness and surface extent, whilst in 

 glaucicolella it is reduced to a mere strip of the thinnest material, and 

 is so weak that it can be bent and distorted with great ease by pulling 

 on the visceral tube. The difference in their comparative rigidity is 

 interesting, when we bear in mind that the former lays her eggs for 

 the most part in the early summer when the rush flowers are only just 

 opening, and must consequently offer much resistance to the entrance 

 of the ovipositor, whereas, the latter performs the act much later when 

 the flowers have long been out and become easy of access. 



Enough has now been said to establish beyond dispute the dis- 

 tinctness of the two species, but were further evidence needed, it 

 could be found in the inner portion of the canal leading to the bursa 

 copulatrix. The organ is of great length, and highly complicated in 

 all the species, but in glaucicolella its length is simply extraordinary, 

 and it has besides differences of structure that separate it at once 

 from ccGspititiella or any of the others. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE IV. 



a is the genital aperture. 



h is the external portion of the canal leading to the bursa copulatrix. 



c is the commencement of the inner portion of the same canal. 



d d are the external pockets. 



e e are the internal pockets. 



t 

 Tarrington, Ledbury : 1892. 



A NEW SPECIES OF CYNIFID^ 

 BY G. C. BIGNELL, F.E.S. 



Spathegaster punctatus, sp. n. 

 Black, legs flavous, upper-side of hind coxae, antennae, except the first two or 

 three joints, which are lighter, fuscous. Eyes not so large nor so prominent as those 

 of baccarum. Thorax : the mesonotum trilobate, with deep furrows continued to the 

 scutelhun, middle lobe (which is sharply defined) smooth and shining, except near 

 the scutellum, where the punctures are very shallow, the sides closely punctured. 

 Wings hyaline. 



At first sight it has all the appearance of Spathegaster haccarum, 

 but when carefully examined the sculpture of the thorax separates it 

 from that species, and the wings are free from fuscous clouds. 



In haccarum the mesosternum is separated from the mesonotum 



