134 MR. CLAUDE MORLEY ON AFRICAN 



whole of their tarsi, dead black. Length, 12-13 mm. J only. — 

 Taken with X. iiiermis and A', rotmidator in the Mabira and 

 Budongo Forests of Uganda at rather more than 3500 feet 

 during July and Decembei-. 



HOPLISMENUS. 



Gravenhorst, Ichn. Europ. ii. 1829, p. 409; Wesmael, 

 Nouv. Mem. Ac. Brux. 1844, p. 13. 



Head slender, not tumidous, somewhat narrowed behind the 

 eyes and towards the mouth ; cl3'peus large, apically truncate ; 

 labrum usu«:lly very shortly exserted. Antennae slender, seta- 

 ceous ; of d subserrate, of 5 a little dilato-explanate, beyond 

 their centre. Thorax subcylindiical, discally gibbulous ; meso- 

 notum somewhat convex, with distinct notauli ; metathorax with 

 basal sulcus profound, and the apophyses acute ; spiracles linear 

 or elongate-oval. Scutellum strongly elevated, abruptly declivous 

 apically. Abdomen subfusiform ; hypopygium not coveiing base 

 of the distinctl}^ a little exserted terebi-a. Legs somewhat slender. 

 Wings normal ; areolet pentagonal. 



The bidentate metathorax, exserted terebra, Jic, lend members 

 of this genus decided Cryptid facies ; but the males bear only the 

 faintest traces, and the females none at all, of sternauli. To 

 Plcdylahus it also bears a superficial resemblance but may be 

 distinguished therefrom, besides the major points above indicated, 

 by the straight and slender hind tibiae and by the pentagonal 

 areolet. This genus has been placed by all former authors among 

 the Oxypygini, and so recently as March 1914 Herr Pfanknch 

 told me (in lit.) : " It is my mind that HoiMsmenns belongs to 

 the Ichneumonides " ; but the conformation of the metathorax 

 and scutellum, as also the flagellar structure, ally it with the 

 Trogoidte of Forster, and it was there ti'eated of in my 

 ' Ichneumonologia Britannica' in 1903; among the Oxypygini 

 it were certainly aberrant. Peihaps Acantlwjojypa Cameron 

 (Entom. XXXV. 1902, p. 109) will prove synonymous, in which 

 case thirteen Asiatic species Avill be added ; but the majoi-ity of 

 these have the head a great deal larger and moi-e biiccate than 

 any Hojjlismenits of my acquaintance — though that its author was 

 ignorant of the present genus is proved by his inclusion therein 

 of his H. ceylonicas (Spolia Zeylanica, iii. 1905, p. 100), which is 

 a Eupalmnus and the male of his J\Iela)iic/meumon kandiensis 

 (loc. cit. p. 99). 



Africa may be considered the home oi Hoplismenus, since more 

 kinds are known thence than from the remainder of the globe; 

 these include Ichneumon dentatus Smith (Trans. Entom. Soc. 

 London, 1874, p. 391, n. 12), as I am able to state from an 

 examination of the Japanese $ type. Kriechbaumer described 

 two species from East Africa in 1894; Tosquinet knew eleven 

 in 1896; Pic found another in 1897; while Szepligeti brought 

 fox'Avard no fewer than nineteen additional ones in 1910 from 



