The OPHIONINAE comprises a number of genera, of which the typical species are reddish brown insects, with clear wings and curiously curved, laterally flattened bodies, broadest at the extremity. They are frequently noticed in numbers among the low scrub in the day time, and in the summer evenings often fly into the house round the lighted lamp. Six species of the typical Genus _Ophion_ are described from Australia; but none of the Genus _Anomalon_ have been recorded. [Illustration: =Fig. 50.=--_Bassus laetatorius_ (Fabr.). An Ichneumon wasp that destroys the pupae of Syrphid flies. (“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)] _Bassus laetatorius_ is a well known Ichneumon which has a very wide range over the globe, and is not a useful species, for it lays its eggs in the larvae of Syrphid flies, which feed upon different kinds of plant lice (_Aphis_) and are very useful insects to the gardener. It measures about ¼ of an inch in length, with the head, thorax, tip and base of the abdomen black, the rest reddish brown with yellow markings on the head. The tibiae of the hind legs are very distinctly banded with white, black, and reddish brown, giving it quite a distinctive character. Family 9. Small Ichneumons. BRACONIDAE. These are insects with very similar habits but easily separated from the large ichneumon wasps by the structure of the fore wings, as they have the outer cross veins wanting, thus showing two long outer cells, which in the former are divided into two cells. The antennae are always composed of more than fifteen joints, and the segments of the abdomen are more soldered together. Many of them, like the _Microgasters_, are very small, others are as large as many of the smaller true ichneumons. This country is probably very rich in indigenous species, while we have a considerable number that have been introduced with their host insect; but hardly anything has been done in describing our species. As far back as 1775 Fabricius named 4 species of the typical Genus _Bracon_, to which only three other species have been added, though over 500 species are listed in Dalla Torre’s Catalogue in the cosmopolitan Genus _Bracon_ from other parts of the globe.