Banchiis.] BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 281 



BANCHIDES. 



In spite of all that has been written by Hohngren and Thomson to the 

 contrary, 1 am certainly of opinion that this aberrant group of Ichneumons 

 bears features of closer relationship with certain Pimplinae than with the 

 Ophioninae or I'ryphoninae. On the one hand they resemble Acaenitus 

 in the subsessile abdomen, narrow wings and elongate legs, and, on the 

 other, their relationship with Meniscus is well attested by Gravenhorst, 

 who described the same insect, under different names, in both groups. 

 The rhomboidal areolet and subsessile abdomen exclude them from the 

 Ichneumoninae and Cryptinae ; the lack of a distinct petiole also will not 

 permit of their inclusion in the Ophioninae ; and the distinctly exserted 

 ovipositor of at least Exctasfcs seems to preclude them from the Try- 

 phoninae, wherein the anus is never distinctly compressed as in Baiichus, 

 though this feature is met wdth to a modified extent in the Acaenitides. 

 Marshall places Aro/es between our two British genera of this tribe, from 

 which, however, it so materially differs in conformation as to be far more 

 naturally included in the last tribe. Our genera are easily distin- 

 guished : — 



(2). I. Eyes internally emarginate ; onychcs 



pectinate . . Banchus, Fad. 



(i). 2. Eyes not emarginate ; onyches simple Exetastes, Grav. 



BANCHUS, Fabricius. 

 Fab. E.S. Suppl. (1798). 209. 



Head shortly transverse, a little narrower than the thorax and con- 

 stricted behind the subreniform-oval and always internally emarginate 

 eyes ; clypeus subdiscreted and apically emarginate ; mandibular teeth 

 obtuse and unequal ; maxillary palpi with the fourth joint of J often 

 strongly dilated, of 9 a little incrassate ; frons strigose between the 

 scrobes. Antennae somewhat slender, subfiliform with the scape deeply 

 excised ; longer in (J . Thorax convex ; notauli elongate and, at least 

 posteriorly, entire ; metathorax short and scabrous with no areae ; apo- 

 physes stout and sometimes connected by a central carina ; spiracles 

 linear. Scutellum triangular and apically obtuse, gibbous or convex, 

 nearly always with a more or less acuminate discal spine. Abdomen ses- 

 sile or subsessile, smooth and nitidulous, longer and usually narrower than 

 the thorax, dorsally convex and laterally compressed especially in the 9 ; 

 basal segment hardly broader apically, slightly canaliculate, with the lateral 

 tubercles before the centre ; anus of (^ obtuse with segments five to 

 seven very short, of 9 segments five to eight usually elongatcly exserted; 

 terebra not or hardly exserted. Legs elongate and not unusually stout, 



