BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 305 



MESOCHORIDES. 



Strongly glabrous and nitiduloiis insects, usually of small si/c. Head 

 short and nearly always posteriorly constricted ; eyes internally emargin- 

 ate with ocelli large. Antennae rarely at all shorter than body, slender 

 and slightly setaceous. Thorax convex and often coarclate, with notauli 

 distinct though not deeply impressed ; metathorax hardly punctate with 

 all the areae strong and complete though linely costate ; petiolar area 

 usually entire with its central a little longer than lateral areae ; areola 

 elongate, subpentagonal with costulae obvious. Scutellum subconvex, 

 rarely with an apical knob or granule. Abdomen very distinctly petiolate, 

 laterally compressed towards its anus, though much less so tlian in the 

 majority of the present subfamily ; petiolar spiracles at c^r a little beyond 

 centre of basal segment ; hypoi)vgiuni large and strongly prominent ; 

 terebra about as long as basal segment ; ^ with two elongate, styloid 

 anal appendages, liable to be mistaken for the terebra. Legs slender ; 

 claws and pulvilli small, with the former nearly always more or less 

 broadly and elongately pectinate. Wings with the areolet rhomboidal 

 quadrate, always conspicuously large and rarely obviously broader than 

 the subcentrally emitted recurrent nervure ; basal ^md disco-cubital ner- 

 vures strongly curved ; stigma somewhat broad and not elongate ; ner- 

 vellus more often wanting. 



This Tribe is at once recognised bv the unique shape and size of its 

 areolet, the nitidulous body and curious J anal styls. Its position has 

 hitherto been a moot point ; Thomson in his Notes hymcnopterologiques 

 of 18S5 assigns it none; Szepligeti in Genera Insectorum raises it to the 

 dignity of a subfamily; and Schm. considers that in habitus these insects 

 approach the Banchides, adding that they are also allied to the Paniscides, 

 though distinguished from both groups mainly by the position of the 

 petiolar spiracles. That the last is their correct position I have been 

 enabled to prove to my own satisfaction, by the discovery of a new and 

 intermediate genus, Tc/ragJitalvs, .Alorl., of two species from Sikkim and 

 Victoria, attacking Lepidoptera and combining to a remarkable degree 

 the main features of Paiiiscus and JLsoc/iorus of Ciravenhorst. This 

 author described eight species of the latter genus, and Ratzeburg vaguely 

 sketched fifteen more ; in 1880 Brischke brought forward a good many 

 from Prussia, which are not treateil of in Thomson's work, referred to 

 above, in which he enumerates sixty-two kiiuls, after breaking up the 

 group into the three genera here adopted. lie considered J/, a/ariits 

 incorrectly placed in this Tribe and Dalla 'Porre, conseiiuently, inserts it 

 next after I\niisciis\ I consider Schm. so justilied in reinstating it here 

 that in our " limited fauna," it is sulliciently congruous in As/iphronuiiiis. 

 To this genus also obviously belongs Maliday's J/. tl/ririUn* on account 

 of his "alarum posticorum nervo anali discreto"; it is bh lines in length, 

 testaceous with head and anus black, but 1 have seen nothing like it ; he 

 found both sexes (Ann. Nat. Hist. 1839, p. 114.) at Holywood in August 

 and September; and 1 expect PUsiophlhahntis inclaiHHcfholus, Habermehl 

 (Deut. Lnt. Zeit, 1009, p. 500, ^), must be synonymisi-d with it. 



♦The type appears to be lost for, when working through HaUday's collection in the Dubliu 

 Museum in July, 1913 (c/. Entom. 1913, p. 261), I failed to find it either indicated or selectable. 



