UIAPAItSIS. 515 



femora and tibiae black or blackish ; hind femora and tibiae 

 not thickened, with the basal joint of their tarsi shorter than tbe 

 two following united. Wings hyaline, with the radix and tegulae 

 ochraceous, stigma and nervures piceous ; fenestrse small and 

 punctiforin ; radial cell elongate, with the submarginal nervure 

 not very short ; second discoidal cell apically entire ; median 

 nervure of lower wing basally obsolete ; nervellus nearly straight 

 and not geniculate. 



Length 5 millim. 



ASSAM : Shillong, 6000 ft., v. 03 (Eotvland Turner). 



Type in the British Museum. 



This species appears to belong to Forster's subgenus TemelucJia, 

 on account of the structure of the maxillary palpi. It is at 

 once known from its allies in having tbe terebra fully as long 

 as the apically rufescent abdomen, whereas in D. eryikrostoma, 

 its nearest ally, the anus is black ; superficially it has much the 

 facies of the common Palaearctic D. versutws, Holing. 



Tribe MESOCHORIDES. 



The genus MesocJiorus of Gravenhorst, Batzeburg and Holmgren, 

 has been raised by recent authors to the rank of a subfamily and 

 its species distributed through four not very sharply defined genera. 

 It is very readily recognised from the whole remainder of the 

 ICHNEUMONIDJE, however, by the peculiar shape of tbe alar 

 areolet, which is obliquely square, that is to say that it has the 

 angles at the top, bottom and either side, in place of two on 

 the radial nervure and two below as in certain CBYPTIXJE. To 

 the latter it bears some analogy in its mainly deplanate abdomen, 

 the first segment of which has its spiracles at or behind the 

 centre, never before it as in most OPHIONI^JE. Its true position 

 is still uncertain. Ashmead was, I believe, the first to notice 

 its relationship with Panisciis, though he places it next the 

 BAXCHIDES. He remarks that " the abdomen in the males 

 terminates in two long, slender spines, a character found in no 

 other tribe " ; and this peculiarity, together with the obliquely 

 subquadrate areolet described by me under the Paniscid genus 

 Tetracjonahjs (ftnte, p. 360) goes to confirm Ashmead's opinion 

 and to establish the position of the present tribe. 



The MESOCUOKTDES are parasitic on both Lepidoptera and 

 Hymenoptera, and have been bred from Chrysomelid and Curcu- 

 lionid beetles, but are most often met with in the injurious 

 capacity of hyperparasites, through the beneficial Braconids of 

 the subfamily MICEOGASTBBIXJE, of noxious caterpillars. Little 

 attention has' been accorded this group of small insects in India ; 

 and, in fact, the difficulty of their study on account of their 

 microscopic distinctions has caused them to be much neglected 

 even in those countries where lofftnuMOHlDJB have been most 

 closely worked. 



