30 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



below pale creamy yellow with median basal dark areas, fourth 

 and fifth dark brown, sixth pale creamy, apex dark brown. It 

 also occurs in Europe. It gives the fibre a dull yellowish dis- 

 coloration. 



There will probably be found a host of native insects attack- 

 ing cotton as its area of cultivation increases. These will come 

 from wild plants near by. It is thus very important in the culti- 

 vation of cotton to keep the land and borders of the plantations 

 as free as possible from all weeds and native growth. 



DESCEIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF GABUNIA 

 (ICHNEUMONID^) FEOM NATAL. 



By p. Cameron. 



The genus Gahunia was described by Kriechbaumer in Sitzber. 

 Naturf. Ges. Leipzig, 1895, p. 130, three new species — namely, 

 ruficoxis, ccETulea, and flavitarsis — being referred to it. In the 

 M6m. Soc. Ent. Belg. v. 1896, Tosquinet described a new genus, 

 Nadia, with three new species, namely, fasciipennis, cyanea, and 

 formosa (pp. 337-344), all (like the species of Gahunia) from "West 

 Tropical Africa. In his " Classification of the Ichneumon Flies," 

 Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus. xxiii., Ashmead places Nadia in the Lisso- 

 notini, and Gahunia in the Xoridini, in which tribe Nadia is 

 placed, quite correctly, by Tosquinet. In the Zeit. f. Hymen, ii. 

 Dipter. 1904, p. 17'2, Prof. R. Krieger, from an examination of 

 Kriechbaumer' s types, concludes that Nadia is a synonym of 

 Gahunia, the three species of the two authors being stated to be 

 very closely allied, and might be even identical. I am now in a 

 position to add a new species from the East Coast (Natal), most 

 nearly allied to G. cyanea, Tosq., and G. cterulea, Kriech., if 

 these two be really distinct. 



Gahunia ruficeps, sp. nov. 



Dark blue ; the head red, except for a dark blue stripe behind the 

 ocelli, touching the eyes and the apical two-thirds of the mandibles. 

 Antennal scape red ; joints eight to twelve white. The tibife and the 

 tarsi almost want the blue tint, which is conspicuous on the coxae, 

 trochanters, and femora ; the apex of the first joint of the hind tarsi 

 and the second, third, and fourth are yellowish white. Wings purple, 

 highly iridescent ; on the anterior a wide clear hyaline cloud com- 

 mences at the base of the stigma, and extends clearly beyond the 

 areolet ; there is a smaller cloud at the apex of the hind wings, the 

 edge itself being clouded ; the nervures and stigma are black. $ . 

 Length, 22 mm. ; terebra, 8 mm. 



Centre of face irregularly striated, the strife converging towards 

 the centre ; the sides transversely reticulated, more strongly above 



