Helorus is a genus that does not appear to be immediately 

 connected with any that have been at present discovered, for 

 the neuration of the wings reminds us of Cynips ; the peduncu- 

 lated body, of Agriotypus (pi. 389.); and the structure of the 

 mouth shows an affinity to Bethylus, to which genus I believe 

 Mr. Haliday thinks it most allied ; indeed there can be no 

 doubt of its belonging to the family of Proctotrupidas ; but it 

 may be at once distinguished from all its congeners by the 

 curved nervure, forming, as Jurine observes, a horse-shoe in 

 the centre of the superior wings. 



The portion of the mouth figured as the labrum, may be 

 only an appendage to it, but it was all I could discover, and 

 I had only the opportunity of dissecting one specimen ; I be- 

 lieve a similar lobe is exserted from the mouths of the Bethyli. 



Mr. F. Walker showed me some specimens which I sus- 

 pect are the males of our insect ; they are more slender, the 

 antennae are brown or ochreous, the wings transparent, the 

 peduncle much more slender than in my specimen ; the body 

 is more acute, the legs are very slender and ochreous, with 

 black coxae, and the posterior thighs are brown, except at the 

 base and apex. 



It is not improbable that the H. ater represented in Jurine's 

 14th plate may be nothing more than a variety of H. anoma- 

 lipes with the legs entirely black ; for in one of Panzer's figures 

 all the thighs are black, and I have a specimen in which only 

 the tips of the anterior thighs and their tibiae are ochreous. 



Helorus is by no means a common insect; I took speci- 

 mens many years since in Norfolk, and Mr. Kirby has ob- 

 served it in Suffolk ; Mr. F. Walker takes it at Southgate in 

 a marshy meadow in August ; Mr. Dale has found it on Parley 

 Heath, Dorset; and Mr. Haliday sent me a specimen from 

 Belfast ; he detected it in a marshy field at Holywood. 



The Plant represented is Solanum nigrum (Common Night- 

 shade). 



