168 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Another fact militating against the scientific study of the 

 Ichneiimonidae and allied families has been the involved 

 synonymy, this owing to the writings of the various authors 

 being so scattered that many were unknown the one to the 

 other; further than this the same insect is repeatedly 

 described under different names, and different insects under 

 the same name, — this even by the same author. The diffi- 

 culties created by this latter fact made the following of 

 Walker in the Chalcidida seem to me almost a hopeless 

 task. Vollenhoven's beautiful figures will serve as a starting 

 point to remedy much of this. An instance : — I happened to 

 take Part VI. to the British iMuseum ; on looking through it 

 Mr. F.Smith at once detected an apparent error. Plate 30 beau- 

 tifully illustrates the three first genera of the CholcididcB ; 

 fig. 1 was named Snticra sispes, L. Here was the confusion : 

 the species with yellow femora was discovered by the late 

 Mr. F. Walker to be parasitic on the curious larva of the 

 Straliomydce, from which it was also bred by Mr. Smith, and 

 was generally kno\> n as S. sispes. To prove this the National 

 Collection was examined ; this quite corroborated Mr. Smith's 

 opinion. Van Vollenhoven's species was the one with red 

 femora. To prove him wrong Fabricius was referred to, and 

 there we find — "C. nigra abdominis peliolo femoribusque 

 posticis incrassatis ^«t;is ; " but to make doubly sure we 

 went back to Linne, and there sure enough was "r?v/?5." 

 Thus, through Fahricius's careless copying, error was per- 

 petuated, at least in Britain. 



The fourteen plates of the ' Schetsen,' published some ten 

 years ago, were a valuable aid to the study of the Hymenoptera: 

 what Meigen did for the Diptera, Van VoUenlioven wished to 

 do for the Hymenoptera. ' Pinacographia' is a continuation 

 of this venture on a larger and more elaborate scale : the 

 work is published at the Hague in parts, which appear at 

 irregular intervals; six have already appeared. Each part 

 contains eight pages of letterpress and five coloured plates ; 

 the price is 3.50 fl. (about seven shillings English) per part. 

 The text is printed in parallel columns in Dutch and English, 

 which is intelligible, if not good: this part of the work is 

 undoubtedly poor and superficial as far as it at present goes, 

 but belter things are promised. "Of course the text is a 

 matter of secondary importance, and will only contain the 

 explanation of the plates, diagnoses and short descriptions of 

 new species, with analytical tables, and some remarks on 

 Biology. Meanwhile it may be possible that the drawing of 



