30 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. [Rhjsso. 



mention of abdominal aciculation, as he certainly would if it were present, 

 nor is such figured in Vollenhoven's detailed sketch of the abdomen. 

 The colour of the stigma is stramineous in the original and nigrescent in 

 Holmgren's species, and the tegulae paler. It seems probable that two 

 species are mixed under this name, differing materially in the basal 

 abdominal sculpture and slightly in colour; both six lines in length. 



Thah'ssa ciirvipcs is an uncommon species on the Continent, though 

 widely distributed and apparently commoner in the north. Gravenhorst 

 knew two females, from Hano\^er and Volhynia, in western Russia ; 

 Ratzeburg bred one male out of Xiphrdn'a Camelus in the Hartz ; Holm- 

 gren gives his species ^.^ passim throughout the whole of Sweden ; Brischke 

 records it from Prussia, Tosquinet from Carlsbourg, in Belgium, Kirchner 

 from Vienna, where Dr. Giraud bred it from Xiphj'dria drotniderius (Ann. 

 Soc. Fr. 1877, p. 410 ; cf. also Verh. z. b, Ges. 1854, p. 601). 



On 15th June, 1907, I was walking through a thick, matted under- 

 growth of alder in Matley Bog in the New Forest, when I saw a large 

 ichneumon, which I took to be Ephialtcs manifcstator alight on a twig of 

 Viburnum opulus, about six feet from the ground and I promptly secured 

 it ; there had been much rain during the day and the herbage was still 

 dripping. On examining it I discovered that it was an entirely black 

 Rhyssa, with the legs entirelv red : only two obsolete marks low down on 

 either side of the face were pale and the apices of the hind tarsi obscurely 

 infuscate. I am not sure that it is correctly assigned to the above some- 

 what inscrutable species, though from Holmgren's description it differs 

 only in the matter of size, extending to 22^ mm. ; the wings are clouded, 

 the stigma black, the red hind tibiae distinctly arcuate at the base, the 

 central segments emarginate, the flagellum subattenuate towards the base, 

 and the maxillary palpi piceous with the fourth joint coarctate. It is 

 remarkably like a melanic R. persuasoria in conformation and might easily 

 be thought a very dark variety of that species if the clypeus, as is not the 

 case, were centrally produced. 



I can only believe it to be a \ery large R. cun'ipes, which, has not pre- 

 viously been noted in Britain. 



EPHIALTES, Schrank. 

 Schr. F. B. ii (1802). 316 (nee Keys. Bias. Aves. 1840). 



A genus of stronglv linear and parallel-sided insects with the ovipositor 

 never shorter than the length of the body. Head shortly transverse, a 

 little buccate and hardly narrowed behind the oval and scarcely emargi- 

 nate eyes ; face subdeplanate, often pilose and not longer than broad ; 

 clypeus short and transverse, somewhat arcuately discreted with the apical 

 margin centrally deflexed and excised, and the sides prominent ; mandi- 

 bles somewhat broad, only a little explanate basally and often striate, with 

 the apical teeth short and subequal in length. Antennae filiform and 

 somewhat slender ; scape deeply excised externally ; flagellum pilose with 

 the basal joints cylindrical. 'I'horax convex and subcylindrical ; mesono- 

 tum nitidulous with distinct notauli ; lateral sulci deeply impressed and 

 sternauli wanting ; metathorax scabrous or aigulose with the pleurae 

 smoother, somewhat higher than long with the areola obsolete or narrow 

 and sulciform ; petiolar area smooth, Aery short and basally incomplete ; 

 spiracles oval or circular. Scutellum a little convex, subtriangular and 



