NOTES ON PODAGRION PACHYMEUUM. 263 



of both sexes of a Cbalcid parasite emerged by boring holes 

 direct to the exterior. 



These were identified by Dr. Perkins as a species of Pod- 

 agrion (Chalcidoidea. Fam. Torymidse). An examination of 

 the collection of the British Museum showed the specimens to 

 be identical with the type of Walker's Priomeras jiachymerum 

 (Ent. Mag. i. 1883, p. 118, figured in ' Entomologist,' i., 1840-42, 

 plate F.). This is considered as the same as Westwood's 

 Palmon religiosus (Trans. Ent. Soc. iv., 1847, p. 249, plate x., 

 recorded from Mantis religiosa), but now belongs to the genus 

 Podagrion (Spinola), and should therefore be known as Podagrion 

 pachymerum. 



The two genera Podagrion and Pachytomiis (Walker) have, up 

 to the present, been separated on the following characters : — 



a. Eadius very short ; tarsal joints 2-5 not short ; 



8 teeth on the hind femora .... Podagrion. 



b. Eadius longer ; first tarsal joint long, the others 



shorter ; 4 teeth on hind femora . . . Pachytomus. 

 In the specimens which emerged as above, however, all the 

 females had the characters given above for Podagrion, and the 

 males those of Pachytomus. The latter genus has therefore 

 been separated on purely sexual characters, and the single 

 species, P. klugiauus, is almost certainly a male of some species 

 of Podagrion. The name Pachytomus must be considered as a 

 synonym of Podagrion. 



Fig. 1. shows the hind tarsi of both sexes, and also the 

 arrangement of the teeth in the hind femora of the male and 

 two forms found in the female. The number and arrangement 

 of the teeth vary slightly, and the two forms figured for the 

 female were the right and left femora of a single specimen. 

 The relative lengths'of the tarsal joints has been much used as 

 a systematic character in the Chalcidse, the above result, how- 

 ever, shows that some care is required in its application. Males 

 of other species of the genus Podagrion do not necessarily differ 

 from the female as in the above case. 



The parasites were allowed to remain in the box with the 

 ootheca from which they had emerged. No pairing was seen, 

 but on June 2nd a female was observed ovipositing. The 

 material of the ootheca was pierced quite easily by the long and 

 slender ovipositor. The abdomen was first raised, then the 

 ovipositor and its sheath were curled underneath till they 

 touched the surface of the egg-mass at a point beneath the 

 middle of the abdomen and, finally, the abdomen was slowly 

 depressed, the stylets of the ovipositor entering the ootheca, 

 while the double sheath bent out behind. A rough sketch of the 

 female, with the ovipositor almost completely buried, is shown 

 in Fig. 2. A pulsating movement was observed in the semi- 

 transparent base of the abdomen when, presumably, the egg 



