POLYSPHIKCTA. 207 



and neither their eggs nor their webs, which are attacked by 

 Polyspldncta. 



1 cannot pretend to describe the insect figured by Green 

 (' Science Gossip,' 1888, p. 160, $ ), since it is evidently distinct 

 from that brought forward by Ashmead, and appeal's from its 

 neuration to belong to Acrodactyla, though it has been referred 

 to Forster's subgenus Zatypota (' Insect Life,' 1895, p. 279). 

 This figure represents the imago magnified, thus described : 

 " Colour black ; a reddish patch upon the thorax ; scutellum and 

 attachment of wings yellowish. AntennaB multiarticulate, basal 

 joint reddish. Legs yellowish, tarsi of hind pair and terminal 

 joints of first and second pairs blackish. Wings covered with 

 minute hairs. Segments of abdomen with symmetrical rounded 

 prominences." 



Length 5 millim. ; expanse 9| millim. 



It appears to be common in Ceylon, where "the spicier usuallv 

 attacked" is said by Dr. Marx to belong to the genus Chrisso,. 

 Camb. ; and the females alone fall victims on account of their 

 larger size. " The egg is fixed to the abdomen of the spider close 

 to its junction with the cephalothorax." The larva occupies 

 forty-eight hours in cocoon-spinning, after devouring the spider. 



But one Indian species has yet been described. 



143. Polysphincta ceylonica, AsJim. 



Polysphincta ceylonica, Ashmead, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. 1890. p. 645 



(?) 



$. Black, glabrous, and strongly nitidulous. Head: palpi 

 and mandibles white. Antennce: scape red beneath. Thorax: 



mesopleura? red ; metanotum 

 longitudinally bicarinate in the 

 centre. Scutellum red. Legs 

 white, with a spot at apices of 

 the hind tibi and their tarsi, 

 except the first joint towards its 

 base, infuscate. Wings hyaline; 

 tegulae white ; stigma and ner- 

 vures piceous. 



, '< |*j : Length 4 millim. (Ashmead). 



\\\ j I uia y a dd that the ineso- 



F w \ sternum is also dull rufescent> 



the scutellum unusually convex r 

 the antenna strongly pilose, the 

 basal segment but slightly longer 

 - 48. than apically broad and strongly 



ta ceylonica, Ashm. bicarinate discally throughout, 



with the following segments 



crenulately trans-impressed before their elevated apices, the hind 

 tibia3 are not always apically iufuscate, and the distinctly reflexecl 

 and pilose terebra is shorter than the basal segment. 



