A MONOGRAPH OF THE GENUS OSPRHYNCHOTUS. 25 



This genus has since been employed by both Cameron* and 

 Schmiedeknecht, with the erroneous characters ascribed to it 

 by Ashmead (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1900, p. 41), for very 

 different insects, whose position is consequently untenable. 

 Though Saussure records only a single female from Pretoria, 

 there is a long series of (presumably) cotypes from that locality 

 in Distant's collection, now in Mus. Brit. ; the former was at a 

 loss where to place the genus and adds, " Je ne crois pas pouvoir 

 le placer, ailleurs que dans la tribe des Cryptiens." There are a 

 score of females in Mus. Brit, found by Dr. Smith in 1844 in 

 South Africa, in 1852 in West Africa, in 1859 at Knysna in 

 South Africa, later at Sterkfontein, &c., in the Transvaal, 

 Queenstown in Cape Colony, and in March, 1900, at Slievyra, 

 in Natal. I have also seen it from Bonnefoi, in the Transvaal, 

 in the Deutsches Entomologisches Museum of Berlin. 



2. OSPRHYNCHOTUS OBJURGATOR, Fab. 



Ichneumon ohjurgator, Fab. S. I. 1781, p. 426; Cryptus ohjur- 

 gator, Fab. Piez. 1804, p. 79, female. Osprynchotus heros, 

 Schlet. Ann. Soc. Ent. Belg. 1891, p. 33, female ; Tosq. 

 I. c. 1896, p. 248, male, female. 

 This species is described : — Head and thorax dull red and 

 punctate ; male face white ; antennae black, white-banded ; 

 abdomen black, smooth and shining, apically compressed; legs 

 black, the front ones dull red with tibiae dull stramineous, the 

 hind tibiae and sometimes their tarsi pure white-banded ; wings 

 infuscate-violaceous ; length, male 20 mm. and female 28 mm. 

 All this, as I have already pointed out (Entom. 1909, p. 135), 

 exactly agrees with the type of Fabricius's species, which is still 

 preserved in the Banksian Cabinet in the British Museum. This 

 species is extremely constant in tke coloration of its hind tibiae, 

 and the score in Mus. Brit, all have pure white hind tibial bands, 

 extending only to the centre, in both sexes. Schletterer's female 

 was from the equator in the Congo, Fabricius's from "Africa 

 aequinoctiali " ; Tosquinet gives it a range through Togoland, 

 the Cameroons and Senegal, to Sierra Leone; and it appears 

 pretty constant to that latitude, for I have seen examples only 



* Distantella piJosella, Cameron (Journ. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 1909, 

 p. 729) is a true Cryptus, sensu Thorns., male. Of Cameron's other Indian 

 species of Cryptus, C. luculentus (Entom. 1905, p. 85) = tarsoleucus, Schr. ; 

 C. himalayensis (Tr. Ent. Soc. 1904, p. 106) = Hedycryptus — not a good 

 genns—filicornis, Cam. (Zeits. Hym.-Dip. 1903, p. 299) ; C. orientalis 

 (Manch. Mem. 1897, p. 16) = olscurus, Grav. ; C. nursei (J. Bomb. N. Hist. 

 Soc. 1906, p. 285) = insidiator. Smith ; Buathra — not a good genus — rufi- 

 ventris (Tr. Ent. Soc. 1903, p. 234) must be included and is probably hardly 

 distinct from apparitorius, Vill. ; nor is C. bibulua (Tr. Ent. Soc. 1904, 

 p. 106) from C. albatorius, Vill. Cryptus indicus, Cam. (Manch. Mem. 

 1897, p. 15) = Mesoleptus annulipes, Cam. {lib. cit. 1900, p. 103)= Syzeuctus 

 annulipes, Morley, Fauna of India, Ichn. 1913, p. 236. — C. M. 



