1906.] 149 



high ridge, let joint (scape) as long as the next five or six, arcuate, the curve 

 beneath ending at two-thirds of the lengtli of the joint in a very small tooth, hairy. 

 2nd joint obconic, longer than wide at apex. 3rd joint widened at apex; this and 

 the remaining joints are not, so far as I can make out, truly rounded (terete), and 

 fi'ora one aspect the 8th joint appears to be the widest, distinctly wider than base of 

 the 9th, while from another aspect the margins of the joints are continuous. The 

 3rd to the 12th joints are all transverse and hairy at apex. 13th joint about as 

 long as two preceding, rather abruptly rounded at apex. Prothorax with pro- 

 notum slightly hairy, the hairs being fine and pale, contracted into a neck in front, 

 square behind, with two slightly raised round spaces, hardly pimples, at posterior 

 angles, smooth on disc, punctured at sides and anteriorly ; alutaceous between 

 the punctures and posteriorly. Mesothorax at greatest width slightly wider 

 than prothorax, but shorter than it, with 3 lobes ; the central lobe narrowed 

 into a narrow neck behind, to which the metathorax is joined ; smooth on disc, 

 punctured and alutaceous at sides, with a few pale hairs ; the outline of the meso- 

 tliorax, as a whole, narrows behind, but the side lobes are wider behind where they 

 project than in front ; they arc alutaceous with a few hairs and scattered punc- 

 tures. The metathorax is about as long as the mesothorax. It widens rapidly at 

 base to about the width of the middle lobe of the mesothorax, when its outline 

 curves gently and then contracts to a narrow pedicel, its sculpture similar to the 

 central lobe of the mesothorax. 



Abdomen ovate, with outstanding pale hairs ; widest at apex of 2nd segment. 

 1st segment rapidly widening, about as long as 2nd, and longer than the remaining 

 segments. 3rd, 4th, and 5th segments each with an emarginate plate in the centre, 

 so that at first sight the abdomen appears to have three segments more than is really 

 the case. The structnre of these plates is not easy to follow, and I am not 

 prepared to say for certain that they are more than a thickening of the chiton at 

 the base of the segments, leaving a depressed area at the apex. Legs hairy, inter- 

 mediate tibise spined ; 1st pair of legs with femora and 1st joint of tarsi curved ; 

 there are strong spines at the end of the 1st joint of the front tarsi which is long 

 and thickened ; the four posterior legs have the coxiie large and visible from above 

 the femora, swollen, the intermediate femora with the outline curved beneath, the 

 hind femora with the outline curved above ; coloured like a pale specimen of Ponera 

 contracta, brown, with legs, antennae, head in front of antennae, trophi, except 

 mandibles and the apices of the segments of the abdomen, paler. Length 

 about 3*5 mm. 



Habitat : iu nest and runs of Fonera contracta, one specimen 

 taken by me at Charing, Kent, on Auorust 3rd, 1903. 



While collecting with Mr. Morlej at Charing, Kent, on August 

 2nd, 1903, I captured a small insect under the impression that it was 

 a specimen of Fonera contracta. On getting home it proved not to 

 be an aculeate, but an extraordinary looking little insect belonging 

 to some genus allied to Scleroderma of Westwood, a genus belonging 

 to the family Bethylince, among the Proctotrypidcd. It appeared also 

 to agree with the genus given by Ashmead in his Monograph of the 



