96 [April, 1916. 



connected items of additional knowledge are apt to become unavailable. 

 The four following species may already be presented, since the fifth 

 and last volume of my " British Ichneumons " is now published. 



1. — -POLYBLASTUS BREVISETA Eatz. 



Pimpla breviseta Eatz., Ichu. d. Forst. iii, 1852, p. 97. ? . Tryphon 

 aherrans Evithe, Stett. Ent. Zeit. xvi, 1855, p. 85, $ . Polyhlastus senilis 

 Holmgr. Sv. Ak. Handl. 1855, p. 219 ; Brisch. Schr. Ges. Konig. xi, 

 1871, p. 94 ; Schr. Nat. Ges. Danz. iv, 1878, p. 100, (J ? . 



A stout and black species, with the mouth-parts flavescent; mandibles 

 bidentate and towards their apices narrow, their base discally convex and 

 glabrous ; face discreted from clypeus, not scutiform nor convex throughout ; 

 frons not concave. Flagellum neither centrally dilated nor white-banded. 

 Epicnemia interrupted above ; mesosternum and pleurae usually, though not 

 always, sanguineous red ; scixtellum black, simply convex and not quadrate. 

 Abdomen not red-marked ; first segment short, broadly sessile and not smooth, 

 its base siib-auriculate ; central segments distinctly trans-impressed ; venter 

 stramineous with valvixlae lai'ge, vomeriform and black-pilose ; hypopygium 

 not retracted but broadly concealing base of the terebra, which is one-sixth the 

 abdominal length. Legs neither short nor abnormally stout, red with only the 

 hind tibiae and their tarsi nigrescent, joints of the latter basally white ; hind 

 calcaria strong but not elongate ; apical hind tarsal joint stout, hardly double 

 the length of the penviltimate ; tarsal claws strongly pectinate. Areolet wanting ; 

 basal nervure arcuately vertical ; stigma basally and the tegulae entirely 

 white. Length, 6-7 mm. ^ $ . 



Placed in his sub-genus Ctenacmus by Thomson (Opusc. Ent. 901) ; 

 I have not found it to be larviferous. It differs from the nineteen 

 already known British species in its blaclc abdomen and white-banded 

 hind tarsi, the strongly trans-impressed second segment, and elongate 

 terebra, which is structurally quite distinct from that of any Pimplid. 



Eatzeburg in 1852 first described the $ as a German Pimpla on 

 account of the " Bohrer kaum ^ der Hinterleibslange. Areola fehlt." 

 And upon precisely these two characters I placed it in the genus 

 Polysphincta, though I could find then no such insect described, in my 

 collection. He says Brischke bred it from [ ? a species of Nematus in] 

 rose-galls on Ap -il 14th. Three years later Euthe also described the $ 

 as new under the genus Tryphon, from Iceland ; I have examined 

 his type and a ? co-type in the British Museum. The same year 

 Holmgren described both sexes as new under Polyhlastus, from Sweden, 

 but, curiously enough, he makes no mention of the peculiarly exserted 

 terebra. Brischke synonymises these names in both his papers and 

 states that he bred it from Nematus larvae (his var. i is probably 



