Ephialtts.] BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 35 



and their sternum nitiduloiis and finely though distinctly punctate, with 

 epicnemia entire and the lateral sulcus deeply impressed, sternauli want- 

 ing ; metathorax scabrous and dull with the pleurae smoother and some- 

 what shining, the disc strongly bicarinate to the ])etiolar area which is 

 longitudinally in the centre, though not basally, carinate ; lateral costae 

 entire, spiracles small and oval, apophyses wanting. Scutellum black, 

 nitidulous, deplanate, subglabrous with sparse puncturation and black 

 pilosity. Abdomen immaculate, parallel-sided, thrice longer though not 

 broader than thorax, scabrous with the apices of the segments nitidulous 

 and transaciculate ; first segment twice longer than broad and hardly con- 

 stricted basally, laterally explanate towards the base and apex, with no 

 projecting spiracles ; thyridii of second segment distinct and extending 

 obliquely to near apex ; segments two to five longer than broad and later- 

 ally subincrassate in the centre, though hardly tuberculate ; fifth and sixth 

 ventral segments of 9 often strongly plicate ; terebra two-fifths longer 

 than the abdomen and a little longer than the body, distinctly and shortly 

 pectinate throughout ; ^ valvulae large and apically incurved. Legs 

 elongate, clear red with all the tarsal joints apically nodulose ; first joint 

 of front tarsi basally excised and its calcar curved ; tarsal claws stout, 

 curved and basally strongly lobate ; hind tibiae and tarsi nigrescent, the 

 former one-tenth in 9 and two-fifths in ^ shorter than the latter which 

 has the apical joint twice longer than the penultimate ; first joint of the 

 front trochanters strongly constricted at its base ; ^ with apices of the 

 hind femora black and extreme base of their tibiae red. Wings subh3'a- 

 line and somewhat narrow ; areolet triangular and sessile, ner\'elet dis- 

 tinct ; stigma nigrescent with its 

 base pale ; radix and tegulae 

 rufescent, or in (J ochreous ; 

 lower wing with the basal abs- 

 cissa of the radius half as long 

 again as the second recurrent 

 nervure ; nervellus strongly post- 

 furcal and intercepted far above the centre. Length, 21-35 (or 40) mm. 



Kriechbaumer caused considerable confusion among the largest species 

 of this genus by nominally dividing E. manifestator, (irav., into two species, 

 E. nx and E. ijnperator, as given in the British catalogues ; but, since he 

 himself later found that E. rex was synonymous with Gravenhorst's 

 E. mesocentriis, the original name of the present species has been restored 

 by Schmiedeknecht, whose certainly correct synonymy I have followed 

 throughout the genus. In fact, in a former attempt to come at an exact 

 knowledge of its species, I had found them so involved, the descriptions 

 so vague and the literature so scanty that it was only by drawing up the 

 long diagnoses here given that I was enabled to at all distinguish between 

 them ; and these will not be out of place, since only the scientific distinc- 

 tions have been, for the most part, hitherto published. 



E. manift'slcjior, is very closely allied to the next species beneath whicli 

 are indicated points of sufficiently constant distinction to separate them. 



Both here and in Sweden this species is much commoner than the 

 following ; in fact, it is distributed throughout Europe, and is the largest 

 of its genus. Most of my specimens were taken by Col. Verbury, and it 

 is this species, and not Rhyssa pirsiiasoria that he said he had met with 

 (Meeting of Knt. Soc. 3rd Oct., 1900) "in some numbers in Scotland. 

 One female observed in the act of oviposition had thrust her ovipositor, 



1)2 



