i'.)(t3.j 157 



ON THE BRITISH SPECIES OF TRYPHONID^-MACROCHILI, WITH 

 ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO EXETASTES CINCTIPES, Retz 



BY CLAUDE MORLEY, F.E^S., &c. 



British studeiUs of the Ichneumonidae have been iu the habit of 

 regarding the genera Banchus, Exetastes and Leptohatiis, (irav., as 

 constituting an aberrant group of the Ophionin^ ; but Thomson (Op. 

 Ent., xxii, 2408), has treated them as belonging, with more correct- 

 ness, to the Tryphonin^, and has termed them " Tryphonidee macro- 

 chUi''' on the ground of the strongly reflexed clypeus ; this position 

 is strengthened by the fact that at least two species of Exetastes have 

 been bred from Tenthredlnldce, upon which true Tryphonin.e usually 

 prey. The very large andrhomboidal iireolet certainly resembles that of 

 Mesochorus, but the subexserted terebra, hardly petiolated abdomen 

 and general conformation allies -these insects, while rendering them 

 sufficiently distinct from either, with the latter subfamily. In Britain 

 only the first two of these genera are represented ; they may easily 

 be distinguished : — 

 Eyes internally emarginate ; third segment laterally immarginate ; 



epicnemia wanting ; onyches pectinate Banchus, Fab. 



Eyes not emarginate ; third segment laterally margined ; epicnemia 



distinct; onyches simple Exetastes, Grav. 



Banchus, Fab. 



{Z). 1. Coxse strongly and sparsely punctate beneath varieffafor, Fah. 



(1). 2. Coxse finely and closely punctate beneath. 



(4). 3. Scutellum mutic falcator. Fab. 



(3). J-. Scutellum apically spinate. 



(6). 5. Scutellar spine short, stout and porrect ; maxillary palpi apically cylin- 

 drical pictu.s, Fab. 



(.'3). 6. Scutellar spine elongate, slender and deflexed ; maxillary palpi apically 

 elavate ;H0/it7/a/«»-, Grav. 



B. VARiEGATOR.— This species, described in 1775 (usually referred to by 

 continental authors under its later name, B. compressor. Fab., E. S., 1792— 94), has 

 figured ill all our catalogues. In coloration it closely resembles B. pictus,&x\A I 

 do not find that the " intercubital recurrent nervures " (sides of the areolet) are 

 shorter in this than in that, as described by Bignell (Trans. Devon. Assoc, 1S98, 

 p. 495). 



B. FALCATOR.— The coloration and scutellar structure are distinct ; it was first 

 noticed in Britain by Curtis under the name B. Farreni (B. E., pi. dlxxxviii), and 

 was subsequently sent by Hope to Gravenhorst from Netley. Capron records it 

 from Shi^re (Entom., 1880, p. 88), and there are several examples-of which the 

 ? 9 are labelled " nioniliatus "—in his collection ; Piffard has taken it at Felden 



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