Rhjssa.] BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 27 



sitting on a trunk with its tcrebra inserted in a cleft in the wood ; it did 

 not attemi)t to fl}', but fell to the ground, and was easily taken by hand. 

 Adams tells me it occurs at Lyndhurst, where Sinx g/'gasiii common, every 

 year ; and he has seen the 9 protruding its ovipositor as far as possible 

 into the holes of this species of S/'nw in fir posts. Miss Chawner also 

 says it is common in her garden in Lyndhurst, running o\er rustic fences 

 and poking its terebra into the holes of such small wood-boring bees as 

 Osmhi, &c.* 



In August, iQoi, Bayford sent me a 9 of this species with the following 

 notes : " It was found in the act of ovipositing in a length of pine wood, 

 one of a stack, in a wood flanking Hutton Bussel Moor, near Scarboro', on 

 19th inst. The insect stood with its legs almost vertical, clinging only by 

 the tarsal claws, the abdomen erected semicircularly with the anus deflexed, 

 while the ovipositor was inserted vertically into the wood in a line parallel 

 with the legs." Another, taken at Storthes Hall, near Huddersfield, in 

 July, by Roebuck, " had worked its ovipositor into the solid trunk of a 

 pine, right up to its body," and left its terebra there. Nordlinger has 

 raised this species from Sinw sped rum, in Germany ; but Bignell is, I 

 believe, the only author who records it from S. g/g(JS ; the latter took both 

 sexes at Plymbridge in Devon, on 6th May. He figures it (Devon. Assoc, 

 1898, p. 460), as also does Wood (Insects at Home, pi. x., figg. 4.1/ 5), 

 The former is of the opinion that they oviposit both through the S/nx 

 holes — which he has observed — and through holes they themselves have 

 drilled through the bark : he narrates the capture of a specimen with its 

 terebra protruding half an inch beyond a half-inch thick piece of wood, 

 through which it had bored. Felled trees are affected by this species, 

 })erhaps, more than living ones ; and Burr has seen many ovipositing in a 

 prostrate tree on sandy ground at Besselsleigh, in Berks. 



This species, like its hosts, is probably somewhat local and I have never 

 met with it myself; but there are many scattered records of its occurrence, 

 due to its extremely conspicuous appearance and size, for it is certainl)" 

 the longest of our indigenous Ichneumonidae. Donovan, in 18 13, knew of 

 but three British specimens, one of which was taken by .Mr. W. |. Hooker 

 of Norwich ; Stephens /"/.cj says it is rare, but had been taken at Wey- 

 bridge, Coombe \\' ood, near Kimpton in Hants., and at York ; and 

 mentions another from his first locality (Entom. 1842, p. 200). Curtis 

 records it from Manchester and Norfolk. D'Orville took it at Alphington 

 about 1863 (E. M. M. 1865, p. 262) ;D' Urban met with it in fir plantations 

 near Strete Raleigh and commonly at Newport {///>. <//., ii. 71 ) ; and Dale 

 at (ilanvilles Wootton (Lep. Dorset. 77). It has also occurred at Bury 

 St. PMmunds and Rushbrooke Park, in Suffolk, where Sinx g/gas was 

 unusally common, in June and [uly, 1903 ^^ Tuck, Trans. Norf. Soc, 1904, 

 P- '^35) ; Jacoby exhibited a specimen from Blandford at a meeting of the 

 Ent. .Soc. in 1900 (Oct. 3rd). Felden, I.eighton Buzzard and Hamenstow, 

 in Herts. (Piffard) ; Derbyshire (Wainwright) ; Rip})le, near Dover, in 

 1901 (Sladen) ; Evans has recorded a 9 in h wood-shed at Speybank, in 

 Moray, on 30th June, 1901 (Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist. 1902, p. 5(>), and taken 

 another in Mav at Fochabers, near Elgin; I have also seen a very small 

 and (lark 9 taken at Aberdeen. Thornley took it near Grantham ; Atmore 



* Miss Chawner adds U" '''■) ' I once saw, on an old Tulip Tree, an iclineunion which was drab 

 coloured and very larne- 1 should say quite twice as lar^je as the biggest Khyssa penuasoria and 

 much broader. Us ovipositor was long and it moved very sluggishly. 1 have never seen another." 

 One wonders what this monster of 70 millimetres, or two-and-a-lialf inches can tiavc been. 



