SCALLAMA, METOPIUS. 265 



becoming slightly cLirker apically. Thorax iiitidulous, with the 

 pleurae impunctate ; luesonotum with dense infuscate hairs ; 

 inetapleura3 with long pale hairs. Scidellum and j)Ostscutellum 

 rufescent, the former with fulvous p\ibesceiice. Abdomen dark 

 red, with the basal two-thirds of tlie petiole, and the two apical 

 segments, hhick and with dense pale hairs. Legs red, with all the 

 coxae, trochanters and the hind femora black; tai'si, apical half of 

 the hind tibiae, and their femora laterally, blackish. Wings with 

 violaceous tinge ; tegnlae rufescent ; costa, stigma and uervures 

 dark testaceous ; areolet entirely wanting. 



Length l;3-14 millim. 



Assam: Khasi Hills (Rothneg), 



Type m the Oxford Museum. 



" A larger species than S. trilineata, from which it may be knov\n 

 by the pleurae, meso- and meta-notum being entirely black, and by 

 the absence of the areolet " ; the wings also are darker and the 

 mesopleurac impunctate. 



Genus METOPIUS, Pimz. 



Meiopius, Panzer, Krit. Revici. ii, 1806, p. 78, 

 Peltastes, lUiger, Itossi, Fauna Etrusca, 1807, p. 55. 



Genotype, Iclmeumon micratorins, F. 



Head not large, transverse and usually with flavous markings 

 anteriorly; face prominent above, centrally concave, with the 

 margin elevated throughout or obsolete below ; mandibles apically 

 entire or emarginate ; maxillary palpi with the second joint 

 iucrassate. Antennae somewhat stout and subattenuate at both 

 extremities, usually more or less rufescent, especially beneath. 

 Thorax stout, dull and often with small flavous marks. Scutellum 

 quadrate, apically broadly truncate and often flavous, with the 

 lateral margins elevated and the apical angles subspinously 

 produced. Abdomen sessile, subcylindrical, strongly and rugosely 

 punctate, black, most of the segments having flavous margins and 

 the first very short ; seventh segment of c? half the length of the 

 sixth, of 2 very short and hardly exserted ; terebra hidden. 

 Hind femora incrassate and often subfusiforra ; intermediate tibiae 

 uuicalcarate. Wings flavescent and not broad, with their apices 

 sometimes inf umate ; areolet large and transverse-quadrangular. 

 Size large. 



Range. World-wide. 



The species of this genus are connected with the Bassides in the 

 apically bifid upper tooth of the larger species and the roughly 

 scul]:)tured abdomen, though they materially differ in the total lack 

 of a lower tooth, as well as in the unique conformation of the face, 

 scutellum and areolet. Tlie superiorly produced face and sub- 

 iucrassate hind femora ally them with the Exochibks. 



It is strange that so strikingly large and handsome species as are 



