624. 

 PRISTOMERUS VULNERATOR. 



Order Hymenoptera. Fam. Ichneumon idae. 



Type of the Genus Pachymerus vulnerator Grav. 

 Pristomerus Curt. — Pachymerus Grav., Curt. — Ichneumon Panz. 

 Antenna shorter than the body, slender, narrowed at the base, 

 pubescent, composed of 32 joints at least, 3rd and following 

 elongated to the middle, where they are oblong, and soon be- 

 come very short and turbinate, the apical joint being subconic. 

 Labrum trigonate, cuspidate. 

 Mandibles bifid, very acute. 



Maxillary Palpi composed of .5 nearly equal joints. 

 Mentum long and narrow. Palpi forming 4 short joints. 

 Head transverse : eyes not very remote, large and subglobose : ocelli 

 3, very large. Thorax obovate : scutel semiovate : postscutel 7iot 

 elongated, with 4 elevated lines. Abdomen subfusiform, compressed, 

 falcate and clavate at the apex : petiole long, very narrow at the 

 base : ovipositor slender, as long as the body. Wings ample ; 

 stigma large, trigonate ; areolet none ; marginal and discoidal cells 

 short. Legs slender, hinder the longest and stoutest, especially in 

 the males ; their thighs with a strong spine beneath at the middle, 

 beyond which they are denticulated to the apex in the male only (8 f) • 



Vulnerator Panz., Grav. — Curt. Guide, Gen. 535, 149. 



Deep, shining black ; middle of abdomen yellow beneath, apex 

 of '2nd and 3rd segments rufous in the male, all of them edged 

 with yellow in the female : trophi and legs ochreous : hinder 

 coxae, sometimes the trochanters, thighs, excepting their base, 

 apex of tibite and tarsi piceous, as well as the stigma and ner- 

 vures : expanse 6 lines. 



Mr. Shuckard discovered this rare species in Batterseii 

 Fields the beginning of last July, when he took several males 

 and two females on the flowers of the garden Parsnep, and by 

 his obliging addition of specimens to my cabinet, I am enabled 

 to give a magnified figure of the male. Its flight is peculiar, 

 resembling that of the Lark. 



It has long since been observed in this work, that the trophi 

 cannot be expected to differ much in allied groups, and con- 

 sequently that they enable us to generalize and form families 

 rather than genera, and this is exemplified in the two species 

 of Pachymerus, whose organs of manducation are very similar, 

 yet in other respects they vary so greatly, that they cannot be 

 included in one genus: the structure of the antennae, the neu- 

 ration of the wings, and the dentated hinder thighs in P. viil- 

 nerator are characters sufficiently strong to justify its separa- 

 tion ; I have therefore applied the name of Pristomerus to 

 this species, reserving Gravenhorst's Pachymerus for that 

 which has the thickest thighs in both sexes, which I shall now 

 describe. 



