al 
112. Sir 8. S. Saunders on the habits and affinities 
congregating to form their cocoons in a collective series ; 
for, when treating of this family in his incomparable 
‘Introduction to the Modern Classification of Insects,’ he 
mentions that ‘‘in a few instances which have fallen under 
my observation, the pupe are enclosed in a cocoon”’; and 
that a species figured by DeGeer was ‘‘reared from minute 
cocoons attached together side by side”’ (vol. il., p. 170). 
In some of the genera, moreover (Ceraphron, Diapria, 
Gonatopus, &c.), the females are in hke manner apterous ; 
and those which Nees von Esenbeck has comprised in 
his subfamily Dryinei are considered by this author to 
have their ovipositor ‘‘converted into a true sting” 
(ibid. 169, 172), as exemplified also in Scleroderma, whose 
oviduct accurately corresponds with Latreille’s description 
of that of the Proctotrupii in his ‘Genera &e.’ (iv. 33), 
where he observes that this organ, ‘‘ ex abdominis apice 
extimo prodiens, his retractilis, valvulis duabus tubum 
efficientibus, terebram proprie dictam et acicularem 
vaginantibus.”’ Professor Westwood also remarks that 
in Scleroderma ‘‘ the structure of the antenne and ovi- 
positor has not the appearance of those of a strictly 
aculeate Hymenopterous insect, as Myrmecodes or 
Methoca, whilst the generally small size of the Sclero- 
derme is in favour of their relation with the Procto- 
trupde.” (Monogr. p. 165). 
Shuckard, in his Monograph of the ‘ Dorylide’ (Ann. 
& Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. v. 1840, p. 263, note), disputes the 
aforesaid affinity, referring this genus ‘‘to the solitary 
Heterogyna,” there being, as he conceived, ‘‘ every pro- 
bability that what is usually considered as the Myzine of 
Latreille are the true males of Scleroderma”; while 
citing the circumstance of having received from me 
specimens of both these genera taken in Greece, as if 
tending to support such an hypothesis! 
Latreille, in his ‘Genera &e.’, also places Scleroderma 
among his ‘ Mutillarie’ as a section of Methoca, ?, 
although the antenne of the former are 13-jointed in 
both sexes, and those of the latter 12-jointed in the 
female. 
Jurine, in figuring the female Methoca under the name 
of Mutilla formicaria, speaks of this as “un individu 
rémarquable, 1° parceque ce n’est pas une femelle de 
Mutilla, puisqu’il a sur la téte les trois petits yeux,” &c. 
(Hym., vol. i., p. 266). He also observes, with reference 
to the presence or the absence of these ocelli in the 
