158 Transactions.— Zoology. 



antenuae very small and slender at base of mandibles. Two large brown 

 spots sub-lateral on metanotum ; two smaller ones similarly situated on 

 mesa- and pronotum. Abdomen of a lighter colour below, with eight trans- 

 verse and equal corrugations above, each having five black hairy spots 

 running in regular lines longitudinally. Legs (and mandibles) yellowish- 

 brown, very hairy with spreading black hairs ; ungues of posterior pair 

 large, divergent, piceous. Hairs of two kinds : (1) whitish, downy, and 

 appressed ; (2) black and bristly, and often in tufts, which are larger at the 

 sides, the largest pair of tufts are marginal just opposite to the posterior 

 legs. 



Hab. Hampden, Waipawa County ; 1882 : Mr. S. W. Hardy. 



Obs. This species makes its pitfalls in sandy earth, just like the Euro- 

 pean species M. formicarum. I kept several of these larvae alive for some 

 time (2-3 months) in light dry soil, they seemed to bear fasting very well. 

 This is a much larger larva than that of M. acutus (?), which, I think, I 

 knew, and often watched its habits, at the North, in forming pitfalls, etc., 

 in sandy spots ; though I never met with the perfect insect of that species. 



Order HYMENOPTEEA. 



Sub-Order Pupirora. 



Family Ichneumonim:. 



Sub-Family Pimpilince. 



Genus Rhyssa. 

 Rhyssa clavula, sp. nov. 



Female : Abdomen a rich dark-red-brown variegated with yellow : 

 thorax, antennae (basal -§), ovipositor and its sheaths much darker brown 

 almost piceous. 



Head : orbits of eyes and post-clypeus yellow ; two vertical ferruginous 

 lines from base of antennae to mouth ; three ocelli in dark central band a 

 little above the eyes ; antennae filiform, curved, 13 lines long, finely annu- 

 late (above 50 joints), and under a lens covered with excessively minute 

 whitish lines, very slightly and finely hairy, basal joints knobbed with 

 yellow margins, the lowest the longest, apical third flavescent, the 3 apical 

 joints light-ferruginous : clypeus dark-margined, enclosing a light-ferrugin- 

 ous triangular spot having a transverse red line, and a shorter brown one 

 above it ; labrum dark almost piceous (this dark band also surrounds the 

 mouth) ; palpi light ferruginous. 



Thorax : the mesothorax transversely and finely ruguloso- striate ; a 

 large semi-curved triangular yellow spot on pleurae of prothorax, another 

 below junction of anterior wings, a smaller one above the junction (trans- 

 versely barred with a narrow dark band), the bases of the wings, the scutel- 

 lum, post-scutellum, and the apical portion of the metathorax (encircling 



