744 ASILID^ 



orange; on the other hand very dark legged forms occur, a male taken 

 by Colonel Yerbury at Torcross in Devonshire on August 9, 1903, being 

 rather large and long with the legs mainly black, only the trochanters 

 and just the base of the femora being orange, the apical sixth of the 

 underside of the anterior femora and the actual knee joints and the 

 extreme base of the tibise dark reddish orange, the hind knees only 

 narrowly and obscurely reddish orange beneath, the hind trochanters 

 with only the joints reddish orange, and the extreme base of the hind 

 femora obscurely yellowish, while the wings in this specimen are more 

 Htrongly tinged with brown, the hal teres are canary yellow, and the third 

 posterior cell of the wings is the widest open. The true D. hyalipemiis (of 

 which I). Baumhaueri may be a western race) has the anterior femora 

 entirely pale orange (or with only a small dorsal streak near the tip) and 

 the basal half of the basal joint of the front tarsi orange, but has no known 

 structural distinction. Our D. linearis is easily distinguished by the 

 brightly shining black lines on the thorax, the yellower legs (especially on 

 the tarsi), and the tendency to orange markings on the abdomen. 



D. Baumhaueri is fairly common in the southern half of England, as I 

 have numerous records from Cornwall (Penzance) to Suffolk (Newmarket 

 and Orford), Norfolk (West Eunton), Wiltshire (Savernake), Warwick- 

 shire (Sutton Coldfield), probably Notts (Sherwood Forest), probably 

 Worcestershire (Wyre Forest), and Cheshire {t. B. Cooke). The specimens 

 taken in the south-west of England appear to have the blackest legs, and 

 I have already specially mentioned a male from Torcross in the extreme 

 south of Devonshire, while I had noticed this peculiarity in specimens 

 from Penzance, and Colonel Yerbury had done the same in some taken at 

 Christchurch ; some specimens however from Orford in Suffolk 

 are small and have the legs remarkably blackish. It is not very 

 uncommon in my garden at Newmarket and has even occurred on my 

 study window. My records extend from June 5 to August 9. Mr 

 G. C. Bignell once caught it preying upon the Ichneumon Phygadeuon 

 galadinus. Out of England it is known to occur in Western Germany, 

 France, and Belgium, its place being taken over the rest of Europe from 

 middle-Scandinavia to Dalmatia and Hungary by D. hyalifennis ; other 

 more eastern records for D. Baumhaueri I somewhat distrust as I doubt 

 their correct identification ; Lundbeck however has found D. hyalipemiis 

 only in Denmark, while van der Wulp recorded both species as common 

 in Holland. 



Synonymy. — We are no nearer deciding upon the specific distinctness of D. 

 Baumha^ieri from D. hyalvpennis than we were when Loew wrote in 1847 ; he then 

 admitted that he could find no structural diflference between the two, but that the 

 colour characters would always distinguish them, and as far as he could trace the two 

 forms never occurred together ; he stated that Zeller had taken 68 specimens of 

 D.flavipes ( = hyaUpennis) and not one D. Baumhaueri, while he himself took over 

 100 specimens near Posen and in Silesia amongst which there was not one D. 

 Baumhaueri ; on the other hand he received D. Baumhaueri commonly from Western 

 Germany without any D.flavipes {^hyaHpenniii), and a long series from Winnertz 

 in Crefield (Prussia) were all D. Baumhaueri. Zetterstedt also recorded having 

 examined over a hundred Scandinavian specimens of D. flavipes { = hyalipennis) 

 which were constant in the colour of the legs, and he apparently never saw D. 

 Baumhaueri, and it is in accordance with this distribution that all our sjiecimens 

 in England are D. Baumhaueri. As the two species or forms are common 

 and well known I have retained the name D. Baumhaueri for the British one, 



