Sharp dips which are observed in inelastic thermal diffuse 77ray scattering intensities, and which move rigidly when the crystal is rotated, are attributed to a ?-ray Kikuchi effect. Some geometrical aspects of the effect are explored using the (A20,Aog) approach recently developed by Mathieson [Acta Cryst. (1982), A38, 378-387] for disecting a Bragg reflexion. In particular, it is shown that observation of the effect should not be very sensitive to angular divergence of the incident ?-ray beam, but should depend on the effective source size, the angular resolution of the detector and on basic crystal properties such as size, absorption coefficient and mosaicity. Some useful general results for coordinate transformations between reciprocal space and (A20,Aco) space are also presented.