Z BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. [ Melopius 

TRIBE 
METOPIIDES. 
METOPIUS, Panzer. 
Panz Krit. Revis. ii (1806), 78; Peltastes, Illig. Rossi, F. E. (1807), 55.* 
The tribe Metopiides was divided from the remainder of the Tryphon- 
inae by Holmgren under the name 771'phonides-aspidopi in 1855; it is 
exceedingly distinct from all other Ichneumonidae and is represented in 
Europe by the single genus AZe/opius, characterised thus :— 
Head not large, transverse and usually anteriorly flavous-marked ; 
face prominent above, centrally concave with the margin elevated 
throughout or obsolete below; mandibles apically entire or emarginate ; 
maxillary palpi with the second joint incrassate. 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 subspinately pro- 
duced. Abdomen sessile, subcylindrical, strongly and rugosely punctate, 
black with most of the segments flavous-margined and the first very 
short; seventh segment of ¢ half length of sixth, of 9 very short and 
hardly exserted; terebra hidden. Hind femora incrassate and often 
subfusiform; intermediate tibiae unicalcarate. Wings flavescent and not 
broad, with their apices sometimes infumate; areolet large and transverse- 
quadrangular. Size large. 
The species of this genus are connected with the Pimplinae through 
their American genus Cu//rardus with exserted terebra, and with the 
Passides in the apically bifid upper tooth of the larger species and the 
roughly sculptured abdomen, though they materially differ in the total 
lack of a lower tooth, as well as in the unique conformation of their face, 
scutellum and areolet. ‘The superiorly produced face and subincrassate 
hind femora ally them with the following tribe. But one species has 
until now been added to our fauna since 1824. 
It is strange that so strikingly large and handsome species as are those 
of this genus should have received such scant attention; and one can but 
presume that they are sufficiently uncommon everywhere to have escaped 
especial study. ‘The only at all detailed observations I have seen are 
those of M. Doumerc upon /chneumon fasciatus, Fourc. He says (Ann. 
Soc. Fr. 1860, p. 319) that towards the end of July, 1858, he found one 
healthy and one sickly larva of Sa‘urnia carpint, the latter of which at once 
began to spin its cocoon and the former shortly followed suit. A perfect 
3d of the Bombyx emerged from the former during the following April, 
but not till June, 1859, did a specimen of the A/efopius emerge from the 
second chrysalis, through a lateral hole in the thorax. He records 
another from the same host, which he saw in Sichel’s collection, affixed 
to the cocoon; and a third from southern France, taken in the same 
*TYLOCOMNUS, Holmegr.—I can only remark ‘with Westwood (Introd. ii. Synop. 59) that 
Stephens introduces Gravenhorst's genus Tvachyderma as British (Illus. Mand. vii. 126) between 
Pimplinae and Try phoninae, but as the British species are not yet indicated, I cannot give an example. 
The only one known to Grav. is his T. scabra, which is rare, of transitional form between these two 
subfamilies, and found sparingly in Sweden, Russia and France. Mr. Turner has given mea fine d, 
taken ‘‘near Macunagna” by Mr. Stanley Edwards in July, 1899; this specimen, the latcer informs 
me, was captured in Italy, on the eastern slope of Monte Rosa, in the Pennine Alps 
