122 HTMEXOPTERA. 



Entomological Society, I can only make a few additions 

 from my store of unnamed specimens, or from those sent by 

 correspondents. And here I may perhaps be allowed to 

 express my gratitude for many boxes of Ichneumons which 

 from time to time have been forwarded to me for inspection, 

 and the contents of which have contributed to enrich the 

 pages of the Catalogue. Owing to the embarrassment of 

 these riches 1 have been unable to get through the work up 

 to the present time, some boxes containing an involved 

 problem, if not an insoluble difficulty, in almost every 

 insect. I beg to assure those who may think their con- 

 tributions forgotten that this is not the case, and that their 

 safe return is only an affair of time. 



Progress in Ichneumonology requires a large staff of 

 workers, and a division of labour. The subject in these 

 latter days has become a " little mixed." Gravenhorst's 

 work was the foundation upon which a superstructure of 

 intricate corrections and annotations was erected by Wes- 

 mael — and these were constantly undergoing changes and 

 improvements during their author's lifetime. His purpose 

 of rearranging the whole was unfortunately never fulfilled. 

 So that these commentaries, as we have them, require for 

 their right use a degree of patience and an expenditure of 

 time that few can command. Holmgren's " Ichneumono- 

 logia Suecica" has simplified the subject as far as the 

 Swedish species of Ichneumon are concerned, and his work 

 is of primary importance to any one examining British 

 species. The same simplification of the genera immediately 

 connected with Ichneumon is not yet effected. The Cryp- 

 tides are somewhat less advanced than the Ichneumonides. 

 The most important improvements are Taschenberg's re- 

 vision of the Gravenhorstian types, and Forster's Mono- 

 graph of Pezomachus. But here much remains to be done 

 in the way of generic division. The three great genera 



