SCALLAMA. METOPITJS. 265 



becoming slightly darker apically. Thorax nitidulous, with the 

 pleurae impunctate ; mesonotum with dense infuscate hairs ; 

 metapleuraj with long pale hairs. Scutellum and postscntellum 

 rufescent, the former with fulvous pubescence. Abdomen dark 

 red, with the basal two-thirds of the petiole, aud the two apical 

 segments, black and with dense pale hairs. Legs red, with all the 

 coxae, trochanters and the hind femora black; tarsi, apical half of 

 the hind tibiae, and their femora laterally, blackish. Wings with 

 violaceous tinge ; tegulae rufescent ; costa, stigma and nervures 

 dark testaceous ; areolet entirely wanting. 



Length 13-14 millim. 



ASSAM : Khasi Hills (Rothney}. 



Type in the Oxford Museum. 



" A larger species than S. trilineata, from which it may be known 

 by the pleurae, meso- aud meta-notum being entirely black, and by 

 the absence of the areolet " ; the wings also are darker and the 

 mesopleursD impunctate. 



Genus METOPIUS, Panz. 



Metopius, Panzer, Krit. Revis. ii, 1806, p. 78, 

 Peltastes, Illiger, .Rossi', Fauna Etrusca, 1807, p. 55. 



GENOTYPE, Ichneumon micralorius, F. 



Head not large, transverse and usually with flavous markings 

 anteriorly; face prominent above, centrally concave, with the 

 margin elevated throughout or obsolete below ; mandibles apically 

 entire or emarginate; maxillary palpi with the second joint 

 incrassate. Antennae somewhat stout and subatteuuate at both 

 extremities, usually more or less rufescent, especially beneath. 

 Thorax stout, dull and often with small flavous marks. Scutellum 

 quadrate, apically broadly truncate and often flavous, with the 

 lateral margins elevated and the apical angles subspinously 

 produced. Abdomen sessile, subcylindrical, strongly and rugosely 

 punctate, black, most of the segments having flavous margins and 

 the first very short ; seventh segment of <$ half the length of the 

 sixth, of $ very short and hardly exserted ; terebra hidden. 

 Hind femora incrassate and often subfusiforra ; intermediate tibia? 

 unicalcarate. Wings flavescent and riot broad, with their apices 

 sometimes inf umate ; areolet large and transverse-quadrangular. 

 Size large. 



Range. World-wide. 



The species of this genus are connected with the BASSIDES in the 

 apically bifid upper tooth of the larger species and the roughly 

 sculptui^ed abdomen, though they materially differ in the total lack 

 of a lower tooth, as well as in the unique conformation of the face, 

 scutellum and areolet. The superiorly produced face and sub- 

 incrassate hind femora ally them with the EXOCHLDES. 



It is strange that so strikingly large and handsome species as are 



