1. PACHYGASTER 75 



by the widely separated eyes on its frons. When I say from all other 

 European species I must call attention to a specimen in Bigot's collection, 

 which is one out of four exponents of P. meromdas, as this specimen has 

 the frons only about one-tenth the width of the head, and the silvery 

 pubescence on its thorax has a tendency to run into five stripes on the 

 forepart, between which are polished bare impunctate intermediate stripes ; 

 the antennae are dark and the third joint is especially small and dark ; the 

 eyes are almost round, and the wings have the subcostal and costal veins 

 yellowish and not blackened ; this specimen may be a distinct though 

 closely allied species, but I think it is only a remarkable variety. 



P. orhitalis was first recorded as British by Mr E. E. Austen in the 

 Entomologist's Monthly Magazine for October 1901, under the name of 



Fig. 100. — rochygaster tarsali.< pupa case, 

 Fir. 90. — Parhygasfcr orhUalis X 10 ; iileiititied by Dufour as 7'. 



pupa. X 10. orbitalis. 



Neopachygaster meromelccna. A number of specimens were bred from 

 larvae and pupae found by Dr J). Sharp in a decajing Holly {Ilex) at Bank 

 near Lyndhurst in the New Forest on June 1, and the perfect insects 

 emerged from June 8 to 28. Dr Sharp has since found it again in the same 

 tree and in other similarly decaying hollies ; it was bred in abundance in 

 July 1904, and through the guidance of Dr Sharp I obtained and bred a large 

 number in 1905. The pupae (fig. 99) I obtained were found under the thin 

 bark of decaying holly trees down near the base of the trees where the bark 

 was more or less moist. Mr F. Jenkinson caught one specimen at Lynd- 

 hurst on July 3, 1901. Dr Sharp has informed me that the debris in 

 which the larvae occur may be in an almost liquid state, but that the larvae 

 will bear complete drying up and will recover again upon the application 

 of moisture. It is somewhat remarkable that Dr Sharp should have found 

 the larva3 on decayed Holly only, as the species had been previously 

 supposed to be associated with dead Poplars (Populus). I have strong 

 reasons for believing that the various species of Pachygastcr, when properly 

 identified, will be found to be almost confined to their own group of trees 

 or rather to the debris and frass of wood-boring Coleoptera which live in 



