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Position of the Rhopalosoviidac. 389 
The affinities of the present genus are so uncertain that 
it is well to regard it as a distinct family. To prove this it 
is only necessary to remark that Nylander thought it an 
ant, Haliday a Fossor, Westwood a social wasp, Smith 
an Ophionid Ichneumon, and Cresson a Braconid! The 
last places it unhesitatingly in “ Braconides,” but “ Divi¬ 
sion-?” Yet in his very rough figure he dots the 
second recurrent nervure as being pellucid and at least 
traceable; he thought it “ a connecting link between the 
Ichnmmones genuini and the aclsciti; from the former it 
differs by the paucity of the antennal joints, and from the 
latter by the anterior wings having a faint indication of 
a second recurrent nervure. Its structure places it, beyond 
doubt, in the family Ichneunionidae ” {sensu lato), “ while 
its general appearance, together with the arrangement of 
the wing veins, seems to place it among the Adsciti, where 
I will allow it to remain for the present.” Fred Smith 
“On the Affinities of the Genus Sibyllina, of Westwood” 
(Proc. Ent. Soc. 1868, p. 1), is chiefly concerned in showing— 
as he conclusively does—that this insect cannot appertain 
to the Vespidae, as placed by Westwood, who however was 
so uncertain as to add quoad afinitates animum excrucians” ! 
But the position assigned it by Smith, with some assurance, 
near the IcJmeumonidous genus Anomalon is equally 
untenable in these days of fuller knowledge of that family, 
especially since the contrary sexes possess simple tarsi 
{cf. also Meeting of Ent. Soc., November 16, 1868). 
Many pertinent characters of its relationship are set 
forth by Westwood in his Thesaur. Ent. Oxon. (1874, 
pp. 130-31), and the male is beautifully figured at lib. cit. 
p. xxiv, fig. 9; but, still inclining to place it in the 
Aculeata, he is unable to suggest any natural position for 
the genus. Dalla Torre, so far from assisting us in the 
matter, places Bhopalosoma among the genera sedis incertae 
at the tail of the Braconidae (Cat. Hym. iv, 1898, 307) 
and Sibyllina —incorrectly rendering Westwood’s name 
Sybillina —almost at the beginning of the Vespidae {1. e. ix, 
1894, 113). The synonymy has never been questioned, 
and is, I consider, sufficiently apparent. 
For my own part, I am entirely satisfied that the 
Bhopalosomidae can be placed nowhere among the Para¬ 
sitica or Terebrant Hymenoptera, a favourite dumping 
ground for aberrant genera in days when they were less 
studied than is now the case. Fred Smith appears equally 
