Anomahdes] BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. • 225 



IKIl'.E 



ANOMALIDES. 



This is one of the IVibes already treated (jt" in my " Revision " of the 

 world's Ichneumonidae (1913, p. 49), and is of more than ordinary interest 

 on account of the extremely characteristic facies of its members, all of 

 which are unlike any other Hymenoptera in their caudiformly produced 

 metathoracic apex, extremely slender and very strongly compressed abdo- 

 men with its linear basal segment and always but shortly exserted terebra, 

 as well as the always more or less spatuliformly explanate hind tarsi, 

 which are similar in this respect to the Braconidous genus Pachylo7nma 

 and certain males of the Dipterous Empidae. The neuration is also 

 remarkable and the peculiarly narrow wings invariably lack areolet, have 

 the stigma narrow (unlike the earlier Tribes of Ophioninae) and the 

 second recurrent nervure, by its emission from the cubital only slightly or 

 not at all before the submarginal — indeed, in Gravcnhorstia the emission 

 is beyond it— shows affinity with the Ophionides, not continued in the 

 remarkably rugose metathorax of the present group. They are quite 

 certainly most closely allied to the Pris/onnn'dcs, through the neotropical 

 and Sonoran genus Eiphosoma which, excepting its femoral tooth, is 

 entirely Anomaloid. 



The Anomalides is a cosmopolitan group, known from every Continent, 

 rarest in South America and Africa south of the Sahara, most prolific 

 in species in the nearctic region ; the European kinds have now been 

 comparatively well worked, and are distinctly few in number of species ; 

 the British kinds, with but few exceptions, are of uncommon occurrence, 

 though those exceptions are invariably to be met with in sylvan places, 

 especially in oak woods where Winter Moths abound, in spring, dancing 

 over rough herbage and hovering at the twigs of trees. Economically 

 they are exclusively attached at the Lepidoptera, among w-hich they are 

 known to be unusually beneficial in slaying species of peculiar annoyance 

 to man. 



Table of Genera. 



(16). I. Second recurrent not emitted before 



submarginal nervure ; face not 



cornute. 

 (7). 2. First recurrent emitted from centre of 



first cubital cell. 

 (6). 3. First hind tarsal joint at most twice 



longer than second. 

 (5). 4. Clypeus apicallybilobed and strongly 



reflexed .. ,. .. Sc hi/oi.om.\, IFcsm. 



(4). 5. Clypeus apically truncate and not 



refiexed l\\oc IIII.I'M, IVcsni. 



(3). 6. First hind tarsal joint fully thrice 



length of second II K iKKoi'Ki.MA, H'csfn. 



(2). 7. First recurrent emitted from distincth' 



before centre of cubital cell. 

 (9). 8. Fyes distinctly pubescent ; scutellum 



apically incised . . Tricho.m.ma, TVcsm. 



(8). 9. Eyes glabrous; scutellum not apic- 

 ally emarginate. 



