Rhyssa.] BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 29 



lous, with the apices of the segments laterally rufescent ; the basal finely 

 canaliculate and usually with two white dots before the apex ; the third to 

 seventh segments discally emarginate, with the base of the emargination 

 membraneouslv piceous ; valvulae half the length of the apical segment. 

 Anterior coxae white-marked above and the posterior internally piceous ; 

 hind tibiae, tarsi and apices of their femora infuscate, the first incrassate 

 before the centre and basal ly constricted. 



Marshall introduced this species as British in his 1870 Catalogus, pro- 

 bably on the strength of two females still standing under this name in 

 Desvignes collection (in Brit. Mus.), which 1 have not examined. It is 

 sparsely distributed throughout northern and central Europe, undoubtedly 

 parasitic upon sj)ecies of Sirex, though not yet bred, and usuall}" found in 

 companv with Ihalia culhlhilor* whose victims are known to be the 

 Siricidae. 



3. curvipes, Grav. 



Rhyssa curvipes, Gr. I. E. iii. 265 ; Voll. Pinac. pi. xi. fig. 7, ? ; Ratz. Ichn. d. 

 Forst. ii. 104, <? ; cf. lib. cit. iii. 113 ; Tasch. Zeits. Ges. Nat. 1863, p. 251, S ? . 

 Tlialessa curvipes, Holmgr. Sv. Ak Handl. 1860, n. 10. p. 10 ; Brisch. Schr. Nat. 

 Ges. Danz. 1880, p. 109, S ? cf. Thorns. O. E. xix. 2122. 



Head with j)alpi and part or whole of the internal orbits stramineous ; 

 J with the face and frontal orbits also pale stramineous. Antennae por- 

 rect, longer than half the bodv, infuscate and beneath subferrugineous ; 

 flagellum of 9 slightly, of J obviously, incrassate towards the apex. 

 Thorax immaculate black, gibbulo-cylindrical ; metathorax centrally sub- 

 canaliculate. Scutellum entirely black. Abdomen smooth, cylindrical, 

 black, more than double length of head and thorax and as broad as the 

 latter ; basal segment centrally subcanaliculate and not longer than the 

 hind coxae ; fourth, fifth and seventh segments discally emarginate or 

 third to sixth emarginate, more deeply in the ^ ; anus a little compressed ; 

 terebra infuscate and a little longer than body. Legs somewhat slender, 

 fulvous ; hind tarsi and tibiae entirely or partly infuscate, the latter nearly 

 straight in J , basally or throughout arcuate in 9 '■> apical tarsal joint 

 double length of the penultimate. Wings normal, hyaline or slightly 

 clouded ; stigma stramineous or nigrescent ; radius and radix stramineous ; 

 tegulae infuscate or flavescent ; areolet small, regular, petiolate. Length, 

 13-15 mm. 



Thomson mi'iilions a variety with the areolet entirely wanting 

 externally. 



There appears to me to be something inexplicable about the above des- 

 cription of authors : Ratzeburg says the first and base of the second seg- 

 ments of the J , and Taschenburg who examined (iravenhorst's two speci- 

 mens of which one had the hind tibiae curved throughout and the other 

 only at the base, gives this feature in both sexes ; Holmgren was not sure 

 that his species was ideiuical with that of (Iravenhorst and makrs no 



' I may perhaps be pardoned a note on this parasitic Cynipid, which is so conspicuous and yet so 

 rare tliat Cameron, describing it in 1890 (Hliyt. Hym. iii. 261), bcheved it had not been found in Bri- 

 tain since the time of Curtis. Tliis appears to be very nearly true, as far as any record noes, though 

 Marshall tells us (t. M. M. 1895, p. 27) thji two specimens were taken in .March, 1888. at Hartlepool, 

 where Sirex noctilio was unusually common. I recollect no later records of indigenous specimens. 

 Late in 1900, Mr. Edward Saunders sent me a specimen captured, I believe, in Scotland by Col. 

 Yerbury, during the preceding August. Last year I received a female for deteimination from Mr. 

 Denison Roebuck, taken hy H. H. Corbett at Uoncaster in 1905; and Mr. A. H. Hamm has just pre- 

 sented me with another specimen found by him at Tubney, near Oxford, in 1907. I also possess a 

 male labelled " Valachie, Comana, A. C. Montandon." 



