712 MR. E. A. ELLIOTT ON THE 



A few species are fulvous, as F. natalicus Westw. The size 

 varies enormously vi'ithin the same species, e. g. 8. coronator, 

 20-40 mm. The terebra in female varies greatly in different 

 species, but appears to retain the same proportional length in 

 each species. The males are, as a rule, smaller and more slender 

 than the females, although individuals may exceed the size of the 

 smaller females. 



Very little appears to be known as to the life -history of these 

 insects. Jurine writes of S. serrator as living in dry wood ; 

 Montrouzier observed S. hcematipoda flying from trunk to trunk 

 on the edge of a wood ; the Cuban S. brimneus was taken in some 

 numbers and in both sexes coming out of the same hole in a 

 diseased tree, called Jalia, Roman (Arkiv for zoologi, 1917) 

 considers it to be certain that they are forest insects and parasites 

 on wood-boring larvae. He found them always round fallen or 

 dead trees, which were infested by the larvae of Rhyncophora, 

 Anthribidae, Longicornia, and Buprestidae. He hazards a conjec- 

 ture that the special hosts belong to the Brenthidae, which, like^ 

 the Stephanidte, are slender, elongate creatures, occurring in all 

 warm countries. 



There can be little doubt that the family is more widely dis- 

 tributed and the individuals more numerous than at present 

 supposed. No collector had paid special attention to them till 

 Roman did so in 1914-15 in Brazil, where he took 98 specimens, 

 representing 7 species, all belonging to the subgenus Hemi- 

 stephanus. It is somewhat remarkable that H. vadosus accounts 

 for 68 specimens, and that his two new species, H. angulicollis 

 and glabrlcoxis, are represented each by one female only. The 

 formation of the prothorax in these is very characteristic. 



One difliculty, inseparable from every attempt to compile a 

 monograph without having access to authenticated specimens of 

 every species, lies in the fact that every author has his own 

 methods of description, and lays especial stress on different 

 characters. Schletterer first gave scientific descriptions, including 

 details of the posterior margin of the head, proportions of the 

 basal flagellar joints, relative length of petiole to the remaining 

 segments, and general sculpture. 



Enderlein desires to emphasize the value of the microscopic 

 sculpture of the central tergites, while Roman finds in the 

 sculpture of the j)ronotum valuable characters for the determina- 

 tion of species. 



Smith and Cameron have given us many quite worthless 

 descriptions, based largely on colour only, but worst of all are 

 Westwood's notes, one cannot call them descriptions, of S. diadema 

 a,nA frontalis in the Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 



What may be the effect of the Great War on the various 

 collections, especially in Belgium, cannot yet be known, but it is 

 certain that the German lust of destruction has caused heavy loss 

 to science in all non-militant branches. 



