28 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. [Mjssa. 



at Kings Lynn, in Norfolk ; Hamm both sexes at Roars Hill, Oxford, in 

 June ; Routledge, near Carlisle ; Porritt at Bishop Wood, Selb}' ; Prof. 

 Carr at Langford Moor, Notts., in June ; Bridgman at Norwich and Spar- 

 ham, in Norfolk ; Day at Orton, near Carlisle. I possess specimens 

 captured at Skipworth Vicarage, near Selby (Ash) ; Ipswich, near a timber 

 yard, in 1895 (Baylis) ; both sexes from Shere, in Surrey (Capron) ; Ashby, 

 near Doncaster, in May (Cassal) ; Ilfracombe (Bloomfield) ; females boring 

 in dead fir posts near Sheffield and a J at Worksop, in May (Miss 

 Alderson) ; Essex (Harwood). Andrews took a female at Stradbally, on 

 the south coast of Waterford, in Ireland, in 1906; and there are speci- 

 mens in Marshall's collection (in Brit. Mus.) from Cornworthy and Totnes, 

 in Devonshire. I cut both sexes of S. g/',i,^cis from their borings in a pine 

 post at Horning Ferry, Norfolk, in June, 1901, and Mr. Nevinson, who was 

 staying there, had taken two or three females of 7?. persuasoria fl}ing round 

 the holes. Miss Alderson has noticed that when ovipositing this species 

 will return to the same post shortly after having been very much alarmed. 

 Dr. R. T. Cassal has, I think, proved the ability of this species to bore 

 through quite solid wood in the following note he has kindly sent me (in 

 lit. 30. vi. 06) : "I found one with the ovipositor buried up to the hilt in 

 a recently felled larch trunk, forming the handrail of a bridge over a 

 stream near Ballaugh, in the Isle of Man. I'he wood was quite hard, and 

 is now, two years afterwards, quite hard. I could not pull the insect out 

 for fear of breaking it, but, on holding it between my finger and thumb, 

 it gradually wriggled the ovipositor out, a/id I had to wait over three 

 minutes for the completion of the process. There were no holes in the 

 wood and there are none yet ; I am watching it every year." 



2. leucographa, Gvav. 



Rhyssa leucographa, Gr. I. E. iii. 274; Ratz. Ichn. d. Forst. iii. 114, ? . R. 

 leucogaster, Tasch. Zeits. Ges. Nat. 1863, p. 251, ? . R. ciiiarginata, Holmgr. 

 Ofv. 1859, p. 122, J . Thalessa austriaca, Tschek, Ver. z. -b. Ges. 1868, p. 269, 

 (J . T. leucographa , Schm. Opusc. Ichn. xv. 1150, i ? . 



Head with the palpi testaceous, the internal and a line at the occipital 

 orbits white ; clypeus apically truncate and not centrally produced. 

 Antennae longer than half the body, infuscate or dull ferrugineous. 

 Hiorax with two interrupted longitudinal mesonotal lines, lateral pro- 

 pleural marks, callosities beneath radix, a longitudinal line on either side 

 of the sternum, metathoracic lateral and sometimes discal spots, white ; 

 notauli very distinct. Scutellum and postscutellum white-marked. Abdo- 

 men smooth and not alutaceous, of S narrow with the third lo seventh 

 segments apically emarginate ; basal segment immaculate or with two 

 dots and the margin subtestaceous ; second segment with two white dots 

 on either side, of which the basal is oblique ; the following segments, of 

 which the third to the sixth have their lateral margins produced, bear one 

 irregular or longitudinal white mark on either side ; terebra twice the 

 length of the body, infuscate with the spicula red. Legs fulvous, with the 

 hind tibiae and tarsi ferrugineous, infuscate above. Wings hyaline or 

 subfulvescent ; stigma infuscate, radix and tegulae fulvous ; areolet sessile 

 and nearly regularly triangular. Length, 27-30 mm. 



The (J may be further characterised as having : — The face laterally, the 

 margins of the frons and a temporal spot, white. Flagellum rufescent 

 beneath. Metathorax basally canaliculate. Abdomen black and nitidu- 



