1910.] 235 



to rely, to change the name, to put it mildly, very much for the worse, 

 into the quite indefensible form Bhogogastera ! I am very pleased to 

 see that Dr. Euslin has gone back to BJwgogaster, and should have 

 done so, silently, myself, if I had not employed the altered name 

 in earlier jiapers of this series. 



Bhogogaster (as I shall henceforth call it) comprises five British 

 species, none of which can be called rare, and most of which are 

 exceedingly common. Three of them arc green in life, with green 

 stigma, and the body more or less — often very slightly — marl ed with 

 black in certain regions (mostly on the dorsal surface), but aft(n- death 

 the green fades almost invariably into ochreous-yellow, or (especially 

 if the insects have been killed with cyanide) into a pale reddish-brown. 

 In the other two species the prevailing coloxirs are black and red, with 

 the tegulse, edges of pronotum, orbits of the eyes, and other parts of 

 the face, &c, prettily ornamented with liright yellow. They can be 

 distinguished at once from Tenfhredn by the almost parallel inner 

 orbits of the eyes, which, as in Scioj^teryx, stand evidently outside and 

 clear of the base of the clypeus. From Tenthredopsis they differ 

 considerably in the structun' of their antennie; which are comparatively 

 short, and liave the 3rd joint evidently a good deal longer than the 

 4th, these joints in TeiitJiredopsis being j^ractically equal. Also the 

 central fissure of thepropodeum (called by Mr. Cameron " the blotch ") 

 is quite conspicuous in Bhogngasfe^-, while in Tenthredopsis it can 

 hardly be detected at all. And lastly, the hind-wing in Bhogogaster 

 c? (^ has never " continuous external neuration." 



It is curious that in one species (ancujjaria^) the nervures which 

 cross the radial and humeral areas are so often wanting, either one of 

 them or both, and either in one or both of the upper wings, that it is 

 actually almost unusual to find a specimen in which the neuration is 

 thoroughly normal. This fact is, naturally, a constant source of 

 perplexity to beginners, causing them to refer their abnormal speci- 

 mens to Nematid genera in some cases, to Selandria &c., in others. 

 But as one becomes familiar with the general fades of the different 

 groups, and learns to recognise them in a general way without exami- 

 ning the neuration this difticulty disappears. 



SYNOPTIC TABLE OF BRITISH EHOGOOASTEE, Sp. 



1. Body in great part gr(^cn, or black with green markings. Stigma always 

 of that colour. (But it must be remembered that in old specimens the 

 greon will have pa.ssed into yellow, or almost white, or testaceous). 

 Apex of clypeus strongly and semi-circularly emarginate 2. 



