170 MELANIPS. 



which have since been relegated to distinct genera. 

 Five years later (in 1840) Haliday himself defined it 

 as follows (in the Appendix to Westwood's Intr. to the 

 Mod. Class, of Ins., p. 56) : Abdomen somewhat 

 acute in ? ; petiole very short, annular; second and 

 third segments equal ; scutellum rugose, the base bi- 

 foveolate; antenna filiform, <$ 14, ? 13; cubital 

 areolets 3. As type is given Cynips urticse, Kirby, a 

 species which has never been described. Giraud uses 

 the word to cover Sarothrus and Amblynotus of Hartig ; 

 Thomson uses it as equivalent to Psilogaster, Htg., 

 giving Figites urticeti, Dbm., as type; Foerster con- 

 siders it identical with Amblynotus, Htg., with Amb. 

 opacus as type, Sarothrus being kept distinct from it ; 

 and the Melanips of Thomson is renamed Dic&rea: 

 the Rev. T. A. Marshall apparently uses the name in 

 the Thomsonian sense, defining it from Amblynotus and 

 Sarothrus by the " segrneiitum secundum basi nudum, 

 glaberrimum " (Ent. M. Mag., vi, p. 181). 



Reinhard (B. E. Z., iv, p. 222) has pointed out that 

 the definition, as given by Haliday, applies to Ambly- 

 notus as well as to Sarothrus ; and further, that 

 Melanips, Hal., was described in the same year as 

 Amblynotus, and he rejects it in favour of the latter. 

 In this I am inclined to agree with him. The ques- 

 tion, then, is whether Melanips should be retained in the 

 Thomsonian sense. Absolute certainty as to what the 

 type of Melanips really was is not to be had, and, as we 

 have seen, it is founded on several species. Haliday's 

 definition will fit urticeti fairly well ; it is a common 

 species, and in some respects fits Walker's description 

 better than does Amblynotus, as, e.g. " caput Iseve," 

 thorax "fere laeve;" although the additional words, 

 " rarius scitissime et confertim punctatum obscurum," 

 must have been founded on some, other species; but 

 the word descriptive of the abdomen, " glabrum," fits 

 urticeti better than it does either Amblynotus or Saro- 

 thrus. The original description, fitting as it does at 

 least four groups of species, it was open for the next 



