British Braconide. 505 
nervure straight, its 2nd abscissa shorter than the Ist intercubital 
nervure ; 2nd cubital areolet twice as broad as long, measured on 
the cubital nervure; anal nervure interstitial ; stigma narrow, 
lanceolate, emitting the radial nervure from the middle ; 2nd dis- 
coidal areolet contracted, indistinct ; recurrent nervure hardly 
rejected. Wings of the ¢ not longer than the thorax, very 
narrow, with the stigma much enlarged, the nervures thickened, 
the areolets deformed and contracted (see Plate). Second abdo- 
minal segment smooth. Terebra almost concealed. 
Imperfection of the organs of flight, among the 
Hymenoptera, usually shows itself in the ?, but here 
the rule is reversed; the ¢ has always shortened wings, 
unfit for flight, the 2 is but rarely in that condition. We 
are not able to assign any probable cause for this pecu- 
liarity : if $s with perfect wings exist anywhere, at least 
they have never been found. Férster named this genns 
Diaspasta, having apparently overlooked the name pro- 
posed long before by Haliday. 
1. Alleea contracta, Hal. (Pl. XI., fig. 3, %; fig. 3a, ¢.) 
Alysia contracta, Hal., Ent. Mag., v., 218, $ ¢, pl. xvii, 
fala oi LS: 6. (wise). 
@ Black ; head smaller than in most of this tribe, somewhat 
shining ; eyes prominent ; face rugulose ; mandibles narrow, tri- 
dentate, the two lateral denticulations minute, the middle one 
acutely prominent; clypeus, mandibles, and palpi ferruginous. 
Antenne as long as the body, ferruginous, dark at the tips, 
21-jointed, the 3rd joint elongate. Thorax rugose, with the 
middle of the mesonotum and of the scutellum smoother and 
rather shining ; furrows of the mesonotum distinct, 3 in number, 
the two lateral shortened ; metathorax dentiform behind, as viewed 
laterally. Wings hyaline; squamule testaceous; stigma and 
nervures fuscous; hindwings narrow. Legs ferruginous, Abdo- 
men depressed, spatulate, shining; Ist segment sublinear, irre- 
gularly rugose, the rest smooth, Terebra very short. g Antenne 
blackish, narrowly rufous at the base. Nervures and stigma of the 
contracted wings much darker than those of the @? ; legs rufescent, 
with the base of the hind coxze fuscous. Length, about 1 line ; 
wings 9 2$, g¢ 1} lin. 
Var. 1. 2 Mesothorax chestnut-brown in front. 
Var. 2. 2 Wings shortened more or less, the nervulation re- 
maining complete. 
TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND, 1894.—PaRTIV. (DEC.) 2k 
