HYMENOPTEROUS PARASITES. 1875 



FAMILY ICITNEUMONIDAE LEACH. 



Genus ICHNEUMON Linn. 



Ovipositor hidden, or ouly slightly exserted ; basal half or two-thirds of first ab- 

 dominal segment slender, expanded at apex, its spiracles closer to apex of segment 

 than to each other ; areolet pentangular ; mesonotum without parapsides ; raetathoracic 

 spiracles linear or narrowly oval; petiole of abdomen not depressed ; ? abdomen acute 

 at tip, last ventral segment retracted; $ ventral segments 2 — 4 with a longitudinal 

 fold ; scutellum more or less flat, or simply convex, and then gradually sloping to apex ; 

 metathorax rarely bispinose. 



Table of Species. 



Abdomen uniformly dull red nifiventris. 



Abdomen entirely black caliginosus. 



Abdomen not unicolorous. 



Antennae fulvous at middle, with black tips instabilis. 



Antennae black above, lighter below versabilis. 



Ichneumon nifiventris EruUe. PI. 8S, fig. 1. 



Ichneumon hunterue Pack. Ichneumon sp. Pack. 



Head, thorax and petiole of abdomen black, rest of abdomen dull, brick red, some- 

 times reddish brown. Head black, with the orbits part way up broadly marked with 

 yellow, forming lanceolate, triangular spots, with the slender apex opposite the anten- 

 nae. Base and sides of labrum yellow. Head wholly black in 9 • Palpi brown. An- 

 tennae in ^ black ; in J black, with a white ring in the middle, about four joints usually 

 being white. Wings smoky-violaceous. Fore legs brown, pale brown in ^. Basal 

 three-fourths of femora blackish, legs dark brown in ? . Hind legs black, hind tibiae 

 paler at base ; himl femora reddish at base. Thorax black, sometimes yellow spots on 

 scutum. Length (average), J ,12 mm., exp., 20 mm. ; ?, 15mm., exp., 28mm. (Adapted 

 from Packard.) 



[The following description of the colors was taken during life : Antennae blackish 

 fuscous ; the middle joints pale, but inf uscated. Body piceous ; abdomen very deep 

 reddish orange, the belly tinged with yellow, the ovipositor infuscated ; extreme base 

 of the femora inconspicuously sanguineous, s. h. s.] 



This species seems to be a quite common parasite of Vanessa huntera 

 and V. cardui. I have seen two specimens, one male and one female, from 

 Mr. Scudder, one female from ^Ir. Lyman, of Montreal, and Dr. Packard 

 records a female from Virginia, all reared from this species. Mr. Cresson 

 (Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc, vi : 173) also states that this species has been 

 reared from huntera. Professor Riley has reared it from cardui, and j\Ir. 

 Scudder has no recorded it in his article entitled ' ' A Cosmopolitan Butter- 

 fly." Miss Caroline E. Huestis records it from cardui in the Canadian 

 Entomologist for July, 1881. Mr. Scudder has also sent a single male, 

 reared by Dr. Dimmock, from Aglais milberti. 



This specimen mentioned by Dr. Packard as "Ichneumon sp.," is, as 

 Dr. Riley states, I. rufiventris. The difficulty into which Dr. Packard fell 

 concerning the white banded antennae and the black face, I have solved by 



