CONTRIBUTIONS TO OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE BRITISH BRACONID^. 179 



earliest specimen in the collection is dated October, 1807, and 

 the great majority of the insects come from Glanvilles Wootton, 

 a small agricultural parish in Dorset, where the Dales resided, 

 although the neighbouring woods of Middlemarsh and Holnest 

 were thoroughly well worked, and, indeed, the surrounding 

 country generally, while occasional visits were paid to Bourne- 

 mouth (in the days when that now fashionable watering-place 

 consisted of a few fishermen's and coastguards' cottages, backed 

 by heather and pine-clad hills), Purbeck and the New Forest. 

 The earlier specimens, many of which were no doubt seen by 

 Curtis and Haliday, are correctly named, but such is not the 

 case with those of more recent date. 



Dr. Hugh Scott, of the University Museum of Zoology, 

 Cambridge, has also granted me every facility for examining the 

 specimens in the University Collection, which, although few in 

 number, are most interesting. Mr. B. S. Harwood with his 

 usual kindness has assisted me in every way possible, and I am 

 also greatly indebted to Mr. Percy Thompson, of the Essex 

 Museum, Stratford, who when visiting Cambridge, brought with 

 him the very interesting Agathidce from the Fitch Collection and 

 so afforded me the opportunity of examining them thoroughly. 



Genus 1. Neoneurus, Hal. 



In the ' Entomological Magazine,' vol. v, p. 213, Haliday 

 mentions a Braconid having ^'Areola radiali appendiculata 

 prcediscoidali autem effasa.''' Nothing further was heard of it until 

 Marshall (' Spec. Hym. Eur.,' vol. v Ins^, p. 197) described the 

 sexes and placed the genus doubtfully in this sub-family. 

 Marshall's hesitation appears to have been justified, for with the 

 exception that the radial cell is small there seems to be little to 

 connect the insect with the Agathidce. 



The single species, N. Halidai/i, is quite unknown to me. 

 Marshall captured a pair at flowers of Umbeliferce. 



Genus 2. Agathis, Latreille.* 



Maxillary palpi 5, labial 4-jointed; head seen from the front 

 shaped like an elongate triangle, mesothorax distinctly trilobed ; three 

 cubital cells, the first never distinctly separated from the first dis- 

 coidal.f wings infuscated, with a pale streak under the stigma. Seg- 

 ments 1-3 of the abdomen longer than the rest taken together, 2 and 

 3 each marked with a curved transverse impression. 



The shape of the second cubital cell is irregular and incon- 

 stant so that it is not a character to be greatly relied upon for 

 separating the species. Small obscure insects but rarely met 

 with, and, in spite of the fact that they prey upon larvae of Lepi- 

 doptera, very infrequently reared. 



+ 'Hist. Nat. Crust. Ins.," vol. iii, p. 175. 

 t See, however, under " Microdus.'' 



