OPHION. 363 



any certainty in Ceylon, and the species are recorded mainly from 

 Assam and the extreme north-west, where so many Palaearctic 

 Ichneumonids have recently been discovered. In the somewhat 

 extensive collection 'from Pusa there is not a single Oplrion, its 

 place being apparently taken by the closely allied Henicospilus ; 

 while, on the other hand, Col. Nurse failed to capture a single 

 Henicospilus about Simla, Quetta or in Kashmir, where Opliion is 

 frequent. 



In their habits these insects are almost exclusively nocturnal, 

 though they may be disturbed among undergrowth by day and will 

 then career away on the wind at a great pace, much in the manner 

 of the Crane Plies (Tipula); they come freely to artificial light in 

 houses and have not uncommonly been captured by lepidopterists 

 on "sugar"; they are nearly omnivorous among Lepidoptera 

 and may often be bred from their own chitinous and cylindrical 

 cocoons, spun within their hosts' pupae. (For a fuller account of 

 this tribe, cf. my " Eevis. Ichn. Brit. Mus." 1912.) 



Table of Genera. 



1 (4) First cubital cell normally setiferous 



throughout. 



2 (3) Radial nervure not basally incrassate. . OPHION, F., p. 363. 



3 (2) Radial nervure more or less incrassate 



basally PLEURONEUROPHION, 



4 (1) First cubital cell with a large glabrous [Ashm., p. 372. 



area below the radius, 

 o (8) Glabrous alar area with no corneous 



marks. [Thorns., p. 373. 



6 (7) Mandibles vertical; body very stout. . ALLOCAMPTUS, 



7 (6) Mandibles horizontal j body very 



slender ". STAUROPODOCTONUS, 



8 (5) Glabrous alar area with one or more [Bros., p. 375. 



corneous marks. [p- 378. 



9 (10) Mandibles horizontal ; size very large . ORIKNTOSPILUS, Mori., 

 10 (9) Mandibles vertical ; size normal HENICOSPILUS, Steph., 



Genus OPHION, Fab. 

 Ophion, Fabricius, Ent. Syst., Suppl. 1798, p. 210. 



GENOTYPE, Ichneumon luteus, L. 



A genus of large and slender red insects, with no alar areolet 

 and the second recurrent nervure emitted from the first cubital 

 cell, which is uniformly setiferous and bears no corneous marks. 

 Head short and transverse, rounded posteriorly; clypeus basally 

 indistinctly discrete and apically truncate, with distinct lateral 

 foveae ; labrum subprominent ; eyes internally emarginate, and 

 ocelli very large. AntennsB navidous red and not shorter than the 

 body, filiform, very slender and apically subattenuate. Mesonotum 



