178 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Clypeus entire, mouth closed, maxillary palpi 5-6, labial 3-4- 

 jointed. Eyes glabrous, vertex short, occiput concave ; face sub- 

 triangular, often very elongate. Mesothoracic sutures distinct 

 (excepting in Earinus). Cubital areolets 2 or 3 ; in the latter case 

 the second is minute, subquadrate or triangular, first cubital often 

 confused with the first discoidal, radial cell minute, straight, lan- 

 ceolate, not nearly reaching the apex of the wing ; nervures dis- 

 tinct, recurrent nervure rejected, submedian cell as long as or 

 longer than the median. Terebra elongate. 



Table of Genera. 



(8) 1. Fore wings with three cubital cells. 



(3) 2. Antennae 16-jointed. .... Neoneurus, Hal. 

 (2) 3. Antennae with more than 16 joints. 



(5) 4. Clypeus and face triangularly produced . . Agathis, Lat. 



(4) 5. Clypeus and face not triangularly produced or 



very slightly so. 

 (7) 6. First cubital cell confused with the first dis- 

 coidal, mesonotum very distinctly trilobed. 



Microdus, Nees. 



(6) 7. First cubital cell separated from the first dis- 



coidal by a nervure, mesothoracic sutures 

 effaced or almost so ... . Earinus, Wesm. 

 (1) 8. Fore wings with only two cubital cells . . Orgilns, HaL 



The three genera Agathu, Earinus and Microdus are distin- 

 guished from one another by characters of but little more than 

 specific value. Agathis has the face produced to a much greater 

 extent than in Microdus, though the difference is not more than 

 may be found between species of the genus Apanteles. The prin- 

 cij^al distinction between Microdus and Earinus is the extent of the 

 development of the nervure which divides the first cubital cell 

 from the first discoidal — a most unsatisfactory character which 

 varies considerably even in examples of the same species. I am 

 inclined to think that Marshall scarcely attached sufficient im- 

 portance to a character emphasised by Eeinhard, viz. the meso- 

 thoracic sculpture, for in every species of Earinus known to me 

 there is extremely little or no trace of sutures, while in all those 

 of Microdus the sutures are deep and the mesothorax distinctly 

 trilobed. The insects appear to prey exclusively on lavrae of 

 Lepido2Jtera, principally Tvneidc^, and with very few exceptions 

 our British sj^ecies are anything but common. Considering this 

 scarcity I have been most fortunate in the amount of material I 

 have been able to study. Prof. Paulton has most kindly en- 

 trusted to me, for examination at leisure, the whole of the speci- 

 mens in Dale's Collection, and also several from the old Hope 

 Museum Collection. The Dale Collection was formed by J. C. 

 Dale and his two sons, E. E. Dale and C. W. Dale, during a 

 l^eriod of roughly one hundred years, and bequeathed by the last- 

 named to Oxford University some eight or nine years ago. The 



