BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. [Pocniaiia. 



it may at once be known by the untuberculate abdomen, the petiolar 

 membrane not reaching the centre and by its lack of epicnemia. 



I ha\e been led by a MS. note in the British Museum Collection to the 

 certainly correct determination that our British species, hitherto known 

 under Tschek's genus Phthinodes, is synonymous with one of Holmgren's 

 from Sweden, which was described under the present genus. The latter 

 must therefore undoubtedly take precedence, unless it be argued that 

 species both with and without an areolet cannot form a natural group. 

 Ashmead places Poemenia under the genera with abdomen distinctly 

 sessile, although it is said by its author to be " sub-petiolatum." The 

 former further sinks Tschek's genus as synonymous with Callklisis, Forst., 

 the priority of which I consider doubtful and the characters, especially in 

 lack of type, inadequate. 



1. hectica, Gvav. 



Ephialtes hectictis, Gr. I. E. iii. 248, cf . Phtliinodes hecticus, Tschek, Verb, 

 z.-b. Ges. 1868, p. 272, <f ? . Poewenia tipularia, Holmgr. Sv. Ak. Handl. 1860, 

 n. 10, p. 67, ? . 



Black, alutaceous and a little shining. Head as broad as the thorax, 

 and hardly constricted behind the eyes ; face finely pubescent and 

 narrower than the impressed frons ; palpi whitish. Antennae filiform, a 

 little longer than half or in ^ nearly as long as the body with the four 

 basal joints white beneath, becoming darker apically ; basal flagellar 

 joint hardly longer than the second. Thorax slender and cylindrical ; 

 margin of the propleurae (and in $ the prosternum), a callosity before 

 the radix, and often the lateral sutures of the metathorax, flavescent ; 

 mesonotum deplanate and subscabriculous ; metathorax gradually 

 declived towards the apex, subgranularly rugose ; areae wanting, or at 

 most Avith a faint indication of a narrow central longitudinal canalicula- 

 tion. Abdomen elongate, narrower and thrice longer than the thorax, 

 and gradually contracted towards the base ; basal segment sublinear, 

 four times longer than broad and a little longer than the hind coxae ; the 

 following very gradually becoming shorter and broader, with the seventh 

 of the ^, and fifth of 9> quadrate; terebra eleven-twelfths of the 

 length of the abdomen. Legs slender ; the anterior stramineous and, in 

 9 , posteriorly fulvous ; intermediate coxae fulvous with their apices 

 flavidous ; hind leg red with their trochanters partly whitish but, like 

 their femora, often more or less infuscate above; hind tarsi and tibiae 

 infuscate, with the latter often whitish before the base, and their coxae 

 elongate and finely punctate. Wings narrow, iridescent, subhyaline and 

 broader in expanse than length of body ; stigma piceous, radix and 

 tegulae white ; areolet small, irregularly triangular and subsessile, or in 

 (J sometimes petiolate ; nervellus oblique and intercepted far above the 

 centre. Length, J 12-13 mm.; 9 10-17 J mm. 



Tschek indicates two 9 varieties ; one with the prothorax immaculate 

 and the other with the intermediate abdominal segments apically pale- 

 margined. 



The ^ of this species resembles those of Ephiallcs, in which genus it 

 was originally placed, though the outline of both the body and legs is 

 more slender and the abdomen is basally more attenuate. It is larger 

 than P. brachyiira, Holmgr., which is not unlikely to occur with us, with 

 the antennae basally and rarely the much longer segments apically white. 



