114 HYMENOPTERA. 



question, and it is so great as to be of full generic value 

 in the family of the Tenthredinidce ; remarkable diiferences 

 in the neuration of the wings in the Lepidoptera, in the 

 opposite sexes of the same species, have been pointed out to 

 me by Mr. Bates, who ascertained their identity as one and 

 the same species by direct observation ; some of these re- 

 markable discrepancies occur in the family HeUconidae ; the 

 genera Sais, Mechanitis and Ithoma containing such ex- 

 amples. A strikingly different neuration of the wings of the 

 sexes occurs in the Hyvienoptera, in the genus Myzine; the 

 genus Plesia is now ascertained to contain the females. 

 Admirable as is the wing system in consequence of the 

 facility which it offers in generic determination ; still, like all 

 other systems, it fails to prove infallible. 



An instance of parasitism, observed by Mr. Butler of the 

 Zoological Department of the British Museum, I believe, 

 has not been previously noticed ; on an excursion to Ventnor, 

 in the Isle of Wight, he collected a number of the capsules 

 of Irisfoetidissima, in the hope of breeding the local Curcu- 

 lionidous insect Monoiri/chus Pseudacori; he succeeded in 

 doing so, and also an Iclineumon, apparently belonging to 

 the genus Sigalphus, but unknown to Mr. Walker, who 

 is so familiar with the family to which it belongs ; I am not 

 aware of any species of Sigalphus having been observed 

 to be parasitic upon the Curcnlionidai. 



With the foregoing notices I have finished my report of 

 all that has come to my knowledge, as regards the Hyme- 

 nopterciy necessary to register in this year's Annual ; it had 

 not been a very difficult matter to have extended it had 1 

 been inclined to mix up a little romance with reality; a 

 spice of the former article would no doubt have rendered 

 my notes more piquant and attractive to the general reader 5 



