23 



A MONOGRAPH of the Genus OSPRHYNCHOTUS, Spinola. 

 Family Ichneumonid^e : Subfamily CRYPTiNiE : Tribe Cryptides. 



By Claude Morley, F.Z.S., &c. 



This genus has been twice excellently described ; in the 

 first place, by Spinola (Magaz. de Zool. xi. 1841, p. 45), and 

 later, in ignorance of any previous knowledge of it, by de 

 Saussure (Distant's ' Naturalist in the Transvaal,' 1892, p. 229, 

 under the name Distantella) , though neither author assigned it 

 a very definite .classified position. That it is distinct from 

 Acroricnus, Ratz. (= Linoceras, Tasch.), I am able to state from 

 an examination of the typical species of both genera; Dalla 

 Torre treated Ratzeburg's genus as synonymous, but Schmiedek- 

 necht in 1904 correctly tabulated the palaearctic kinds under 

 Acroricnus, which differs from Osprhynchotus in possessing two 

 strong metanotal transcarinae in place of only a subbasal one, 

 in having the hind tibiae normal and not incrassate throughout, 

 in its lack of central setse beneath the hind onychii, in its less 

 compressed abdomen, posteriorly broader head with less excavate 

 frons, in its centrally intercepted nervellus ; but most especially 

 in having the mouth parts but slightly produced, whereas in 

 true Osprhynchotus species they are rostriform, with both cheeks 

 and clypeus no shorter than the face, surmounted by strongly 

 exserted labrum and ligula, extending in all to three and a 

 half millimetres below the scrobes in the typical species. 

 *' Osprynchotus " peronatus, Cam. (Entom. 1902, p. 182 ; placed in 

 " Linnoceras " by its author at ' Spolia Zeylanica,' 1905, p. 97) is 

 an Acroricnus and very common in India, whence I have seen 

 it from the Khasi Hills, Simla, Labatach, Sikkim, Shillong, and 

 the Kangra Valley. I may be permitted to here bring forward 

 the unknown female of Acroricnus syriacus, Mocs. (Magy. Akad. 

 Term. Ertek. xiii. P. 11, 1883, p. 12, male), which differs from 

 the male in little but its terebra, and this is as long as the 

 abdomen, excepting the petiole ; it is a true member of that 

 genus and was captured by Escalera during 1900 at Kuh Sefid 

 in south-west Persia. 



The large size and nigrescent or brunneous wings of 

 Osprhynchotus render it one of the most conspicuous genera of 

 the Ichneumonidse. That considerable confusion has existed 

 concerning the synonymy of the species is owing to the fact that 

 Brull6, in my opinion, described an extremely rare one in 1846, 

 and that Tosquinet mistook it for the commonest in 1896. 



W. A. Schulz's remarks upon this genus (Zool. Annalen, 

 1911, pp. 35-37), all the species of which he there wishes to 

 regard as synonymous, appear to have been based upon 

 insufficient material ; he professes to have seen five examples of 

 my last species, thirteen of my first, and an unrecorded number 

 united under my second to fourth. Among these he failed to 



