British Braconidds. 
375 
Nearly a dozen species have been indicated or de- 
scribed : their inconstant characters render precise defi- 
nition extremely difficult, and tabulation almost impossible. 
Although I suspect that more than one species are some- 
times included under the same name, the insufficiency 
of my collection, containin,^ only 60-70 specimens, pre- 
vents me from acquiring certainty on many points. 
Accident has brought to light some facts relative to one 
species, nervosa, Hal., from which it appears that the 
varieties mentioned by that author belong almost cer- 
tainly to several distinct species. The fuscicornify-, Hal., 
requires to be elucidated in a similar way, for the capture 
and examination of isolated examples, of unknown 
origin, lead to very uncertain results. 
Asjpilota, Fdrst., represents the Acarpi of Haliday 
[Alysia, Sect. XY.), with which I am now induced to 
incorporate the TanycJwri (Sect. XYI.), including two 
so-called species which are in reality identical. Fdrster 
invented a new genus, Synaldis, for the Tanychori ; it is 
founded upon a single artificial character, which of all 
others is the least reliable, viz., the deficiency of colour- 
ing matter in the intercubital nervures, whereby the 
cubital areolets appear to be confounded. In examining 
the species of Aspilota it is easily perceived that most of 
them are liable to this accidental peculiarity, which dis- 
tinguishes individuals, but is valueless for other divisional 
purposes. It appears probable that Forster had never 
seen an example of his genus Synaldis, or he would not 
have transferred it, as he has done in his Synopsis, to 
the tribe Dacnusidse. In Synaldis the tricellular arrange- 
ment of the wing- veins is manifest, though imperfectly 
exhibited ; in the Bacmisidsp. the angles of the radial 
nervure are rounded off, and there is not the slightest 
trace of any preparation for the development of three 
cubital areolets. In Haliday's opinion the two species 
of Tanychori (Synaldis), concolor and distracta, should be 
regarded as one, and this will readily be admitted by any 
one who tries to distinguish them ; but I have been 
obliged to go further, and to conclude that they are 
nothing more than casually divergent examples of an 
Aspilota. 
