238 Mr. J. O. Westwood on Evania and 



Aulacus, and Stephanus ; and the third having the abdomen pe- 

 dunculate, " petiolo pone thoracem infixo," comprising the re- 

 mainder of the order. 



By Nees von Esenbeck, however, this family was placed at the 

 end of the Ichneumones adsciti and immediately preceding the 

 Chalcididce, with the observation " Familise Evanialium verus 

 character non tamen in oris et alarum fabrica, quam in abdominis 

 insertione quserendus, cui quidem et alii characteres respondent, 

 tum in oris, tum raaxime in alarum structura et textura obvii. 

 Alse in Evania genere, nervis deminutis, ad eas Pteromalmorum et 

 Proctotrupinorum propius accedunt." — (Hym. Mon. 1, 302.) 



Mr. Haliday, in some observations upon the distribution of the 

 Pupivora (Ent. Mag. vol. i. 343, note i), thinks it would be rash 

 to divide this family into families, [as Mr. Shuckard,* and Mr. 

 Haliday himself, but less extensively,f have since proposed,] the 

 chain being so much interrupted from the small number of genera 

 comprised in it ; adding, " the family besides, is, in its present 

 form, far too convenient a receptacle for all stray articles to be 

 lightly resigned. I am obliged to enrich it further, at the ex- 

 pense of the Ichneumones, with two genera — Stephanus and Plancus 

 [^Paxylloma'] — which Pelecinus and Fceniis seem respectively to 

 reclaim : of the latter I am more doubtful ; for the other I have 

 the authority of Jurine and Spinola." Which latter observation 

 he again repeats in the third volume of the same work, p. 22. 



The investigation of the characters of these two genera subse- 

 quently detailed will enable us to judge of the propriety of this 

 suggestion. 



It is impossible to examine the structure of the insects of which 

 this family is composed without arriving at the conclusion that it 

 is evidently an osculant group, combining in itself not only the 

 representatives of several other families, but also several distinct 

 and anomalous forms. The paucity of species in the family, the 

 strong variations which occur in various essential organs — as the 

 antennae, palpi, neuration of the wings, and especially the ovipositor, 

 and the singularity of structure exhibited by various of the less 

 important organs, as the elongation of the abdomen in Pelecinus, 

 its singular position in Evania, the curious striation of the thorax 

 in Aulacus, the form of the mandibles in Fcenus, and of the labial 

 palpi in Evania, — all tend to prove that in comparison with the 

 Ichneumones genuini the Evaniidce are essentially an aberrant 

 group. 



Acting therefore upon the rule laid down by Mr. Mac Leay in 



* Entomologist, p. 119. t Hym. Synops. in Suppl. Mon. Alysiae, 1839. 



