12 Mr. S. S. Saunders on 



This species appears to correspond with Mr. Temple- 

 ton's, in the structure of the basal joints of the antennte ; 

 and likewise in the peculiar conformation of the third 

 joint, which (as in the Brazilian species) , is " suddenly- 

 turned off at right angles ; " both branches being tumid 

 and distorted ; and although in the latter, the fourth 

 joint is described "as about one-fourth part" lunger 

 than the third, this would hardly seem to constitute a 

 reliable generic character, for the converse appears to 

 be the case in X. 8phecidaruvi, where the penultimate 

 branch or inner article (innere Glied) is stated by Dr. 

 Siebold to be always somewhat longer than the terminal or 

 outer one (l. c, p. 79); while in my species, there would 

 seem to be no perceptible difference in their respective 

 length. The Senator Von Heyden also mentions a Xenos 

 which he had obtained from PoUstes gallicus, in which 

 the branches of the antennae " were very unequal in 

 length'' (Tr. Ent. Soc. Lond., Tom. 1, p. Ixxiv.) . 



But I also obtained from a specimen of Epipojie spi- 

 nipes, L. (captured in the vicinity of the burrows of the 

 Bemhcdmis, from which the preceding species was de- 

 rived), three other males so closely corresponding there- 

 with, in the peculiar distorted conformation of the antennas, 

 essentially different from the straight flattened branches 

 of those which I have found with other Odyneri, that, 

 although emanating from two distinct nurturing tribes, 

 they would seem to be congeneric, if not otherwise 

 identical. 



Hence it follows, that in those cases where the economy 

 and habit of the fostering races correspond, no distinctive 

 limits can be affixed to the foster-progeny, which, under 

 such circumstances, may be equally adapted to abide with 

 either. 



From the uncertainty which attaches to a considerable 

 number of fosterlings whose existence alone, as associ- 

 ated with various genera and species of these nurturing 

 tribes, has hitherto been recorded, but of whose charac- 

 ters no information has yet been obtained, it would seem 

 far from improbable that many novelties have yet to be 

 detected among these occult forms ; whereof one of the 

 most remarkable has been dimly foreshadowed in the 

 exuvial traces of an allied race among the Ilomoptera, as 

 adverted to in the concluding paragraph {vide post, -p. 48). 



