746 MR. E. A. ELLIOTT ON THE 



38. violaceipejStnis Cam. 



Megischios violaceipennis Cameron (2), p. 225, $ . 



"Niger; pedibusrufis; coxis, trochanteribus, f emoribus posticis 

 basique tibiarum posticarura nigris; alis fusco-violaceis, nervis 

 nigris. § . 



Long. 24 mm. 



Antennae black, slender. Front rugosely punctured above ; 

 the sides above stoutly obliquely, the lower part transversely 

 striated, the ocellar region irregularly reticulated, the keels above 

 them mostly curved ; above the reticulated upper portion are 

 four long curved keels, the vertex behind them is irregularly 

 rugosely striated ; the ocellar region is distinctly depressed ; the 

 three tubercles form a triangle. The base of the pronotum is 

 smooth and shining ; behind on the sides are two stout curved 

 keels ; the rest of the pronotum is opaque and irregulai'ly trans- 

 versely striated. The base of the mesonotum is smooth and 

 shining, the rest of it bears mostly large and deep punctures, 

 except a space on either side of the centre ; on the sides and 

 base the punctures tend to become conjluent. Scutellum some- 

 what triangular in shape, smooth, shining and impunctate. 

 Median segment closely, stoutly irregularly punctured ; behind, 

 the punctures run into reticulations. Propleurse smooth and 

 shining ; the mesopleurse opaque, irregularly punctured, and 

 striated ; the metapleurse rugosely punctured. The four front 

 legs are rufous, with the coxfe darker ; the hinder black, except 

 the apical two-thirds of the tibise and the tarsi, which are rufous 

 at the base, blackish towards the apex ; the hind coxjb are, as 

 usual, irregularly striated ; the two teeth on the hind femora are 

 acute ; the apical one is longer and narrower than the hinder. 

 Wings fusco-violaceous ; the nei'vures and stigma are black. 

 The petiole is longer than the rest of the abdomen united ; it is 

 opaque and closely striated. The ovipositor is annulated with 

 white and is not quite as long as the body. The recurrent 

 nervure in the fore wing is interstitial." 



Habitat: New Britain (Dr. Arthur Will ey). Type in Cam- 

 bridge Museum. 



Said by Cameron to be A^ery like his S. froggattii, but, in the 

 absence of details as to the posterior border of head and relative 

 length of the basal antenna! joints, I am unable to place it 

 definitely in my table. 



Parastephanellus Enderl. 



In the (2) Zool. Anz. xxxiii. pp. 453-475, Dr. Gunther 

 Enderlein erects a new subgenus, Parasteplianits, which he 

 defines as having that part of the median nervure beyond the 

 outer submedian cell obsolete, and the cell consequently open 

 behind, the size of the discoidal cell and the breadth of the 

 stigma being variable. He thus includes species from the Indo- 

 Australian and Neotropical Regions. 



