328 Rev. F. 1). Morice's Notes on Australian Sawflies. 



the pairing of the sexes,, and the nidifications of sand- 

 burrowing Fossors) which it certainly never serves in the 

 case of a Sawfty. In fact. Secondary Sexual characters — 

 even those of the antennae — are rather noticeably infrequent 

 in that group, nor have any of its genera Fossorial habits. 

 What use they can have for tibial spines, unless, like the 

 calcaria, as an assistance to their " toilettes," I cannot 

 suggest. Nor can I see any reason for their more frequent 

 development in one group, or one district, than in 

 another. 



As to the Siricidae and Oryssidae recorded from Australia 

 little need here be said of them. They amount only to 3 

 species in all, one of which (a Sirex) is a manifest importa- 

 tion. The others, though neither species is known to occur 

 elsewhere, belong to genera whose species are widely and 

 in one case very irregularly distributed, namely, Xiphydria 

 (a Siricid) and Ophrynopus (an Oryssid). Xiphydria occurs 

 all over the world, England included, and a section of it, 

 to which the Australian species appears to belong, with 

 certain local peculiarities (unusually short ovipositor, etc.). 

 is represented by several species in the Oriental Region, 

 from which Australia in all probability received it, but 

 when, or how, can only be conjectured. Ophrynopus has 

 an extraordinarily discontinuous distribution. The metro- 

 polis of the genus seems to be in Neogaea, outside of which 

 Realm, so far as I know, it has only occurred on two 

 occasions (once in considerable numbers) in North Queens- 

 land, and also in New South Wales and in the Aru Islands 

 (between Australia and New Guinea). There is the closest 

 possible resemblance between its various species, and it 

 seems impossible to form any plausible theory to account 

 for its actual distribution. | It is remarkable that most 

 of the North-Queensland specimens were taken in company 

 with many other insects of various kinds, and that among 

 these were examples of an Australian Fossorial-wasp 

 (Aphelotoma striaticollis, Turner), of which it might almost 

 be supposed to be a mimic ! * The district is so wild, and as 

 vet so little in touch with civilisation, that the insect can 

 hardly be thought to have been imported. Vet if it be 

 truly a long-established indigene, its agreement in fact 

 almost identity with Neogaeic forms seems altogether 

 inexplicable ! | 



* The also, when its wings are closed, has quite a startling 

 resemblance to the formidable stinging j of a Mutilla. 



