NOTES ON PODAGRION PACHYMERUM. 263 
of both sexes of a Chalcid parasite emerged by boring holes 
direct to the exterior. 
These were identified by Dr. Perkins as a species of Pod- 
agrion (Chaleidoidea. Fam. Torymide). An examination of 
the collection of the British Museum showed the specimens to 
be identical with the type of Walker’s Priomerus pachymerum 
(Ent. Mag. i. 1883, p. 118, figured in ‘ Entomologist,’ i., 1840-42, 
plate F.). This is considered as the same as Westwood’s 
Palmon religiosus (Trans. Ent. Soc. iv., 1847, p. 249, plate x., 
recorded from Mantis religiosa), but now belongs to the genus 
Podagrion (Spinola), and should therefore be known as Podagrion 
pachymerum. 
The two genera Podagrion and Pachytomus (Walker) have, up 
to the present, been separated on the following characters :— 
a. Radius very short; tarsal joints 2-5 not short ; 
8 teeth on the hind femora . : , . PODAGRION. 
6. Radius longer; first tarsal joint long, the others 
shorter; 4 teeth on hind femora . ‘ . PACHYTOMUS. 
In the specimens which emerged as above, however, all the 
females had the characters given above for Podagrion, and the 
males those of Pachytomus. The latter genus has therefore 
been separated on purely sexual characters, and the single 
species, P. klugianus, is almost certainly a male of some species 
of Podagrion. The name Pachytomus must be considered as a 
synonym of Podagrion. 
Fig. 1. shows the hind tarsi of both sexes, and also the 
arrangement of the teeth in the hind femora of the male and 
two forms found in the female. The number and arrangement 
of the teeth vary slightly, and the two forms figured for the 
female were the right and left femora of a single specimen. 
The relative lengths of the tarsal joints has been much used as 
a systematic character in the Chalcide, the above result, how- 
ever, shows that some care is required in its application. Males 
of other species of the genus Podagrion do not necessarily differ 
from the female as in the above case. 
The parasites were allowed to remain in the box with the 
ootheca from which they had emerged. No pairing was seen, 
but on June 2nd a female was observed ovipositing. The 
material of the ootheca was pierced quite easily by the long and 
slender ovipositor. The abdomen was first raised, then the 
ovipositor and its sheath were curled underneath till they 
touched the surface of the egg-mass at a point beneath the 
middle of the abdomen and, finally, the abdomen was slowly 
depressed, the stylets of the ovipositor entering the ootheca, 
while the double sheath bent out behind. A rough sketch of the 
female, with the ovipositor almost completely buried, is shown 
in Fig. 2. A pulsating movement was observed in the semi- 
transparent base of the abdomen when, presumably, the egg 
