36 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS [Ephialles. 



which is about the consistency of a human hair, through an inch of fir 

 trunk " ((•/'. also P2. M. M. 1904, p. 212). It occurs from the beginning of 

 July to the middle of August ; and he captured examples at Invershin, 

 Nairn, Brodie, Nethy Bridge and Golspie in Sutherland. Mr. Perrins has 

 found it at Ardross, in Ross. jNIr. F. C. Adams has sent me the male from 

 Lyndhurst, in the New Forest, taken as early as the 23rd June. The 

 published records might with equal propriety appertain to the next species 

 and must be regarded with some doubt, i\g., I believe Bridgman's 

 E. impcrafoi , recorded as bred in Norfolk by Thouless from Saperda 

 popnlnea, to be nothing but /.'. carbonariiis ; and it is so impossible now 

 to tell to which of our species Thomas ^Marsham referred that I have 

 thought it better to place his observations generically. 1 find this species 

 recorded from Norfolk (Curtis) ; Scotland (P^ncycl. Brit. 7th ed. ix) ; as 

 having been common about Great Yarmouth by Paget ; as formerly found 

 sparingly during the summer in Hainault Forest (Stockby, The Naturalist, 

 1854, p. 228) ; from Bottisham, Cambs., in autumn (Jenyns, Vict. Hist.) ; 

 Essex (Harwood, Vict. Hist.) ; Bickleigh, Devon, in the middle of June 

 (Bignell) ; Lands End (Marcjuand) ; and Bradley has, I believe, taken the 

 female at Sutton, near Birmingham, on 9th September. Rev. William 

 Kirby says (Introd. Ent. 7th ed. (14) that he had been stung by an ichneu- 

 mon " of the family of Pimpla manifcstator'' with a very long ovipositor. 

 It is parasitic upon xvlophagous Coleoptera and Lepidoptera, though not yet 

 bred in Britain. Bouche ((}arteninsekten, 153) found it in CaUidium bajultis, 

 L. ; the 9 is well figured by Ratzeburg (Ichn. d. Forst. i. pi. vi. fig. 6), 

 who says {I.e. i. 119) that a large and beautiful pupa of this Pimplid cut 

 its way out of an old fir stump in which, judging by the borings, larvae of 

 Chakophora mariana, L., had been living ; Kirchner gives it (Cat. 107) 

 unhesitatingly as a parasite upon this Buprestid, but does not add as an 

 alternative host Sapfrda popnlnea, from which Ratzeburg says (I.e. iii. 250) 

 he also bred it. {Cf. Trans. Ent. Soc. 1907, p. 30). Taschenberg tells 

 us, in 1863, that he raised the male perhaps from Tiypoxylon figulus ; and 

 Brischke also bred it from the larva of Sesia sphegi/ormis, adding that the 

 cocoon is elongate and yellow-brown. Confirmation of the above hosts is, 

 however, very necessary. 



2. mesocentrus, Grav. 



Ephialtes uianifestator, Gr. I. E. iii. 232. ? (excl. indiv. stigraate nigro). 

 E. mesocentrus, Gr. ///;. cit. iii. 249, i ; Desv. Cat. 87, ¥ ; Holmgr. Sv. Ak. 

 Handl. 1860, n. 10, p. 13 ; Thorns. O. E. xiii. 1249, 3 ? ; Kriech. Ent. Nachr. 1878, 

 p. 193, ? ; E. rex. Kriech. Stett. Ent. Zeit. 1854, p. 156 ; Thorns. O. E. viii. 738, 

 J ? ; cf. lib. cit. xii. 1249 ; Holmgr. Sv. Ak. Handl. 1860, n. 10, p. 12, excl. <f . 



A large, linear black species with pale .stigma and subobsolete tuber- 

 cles. Head immaculate, posteriorly buccate but hardly broader than the 

 eyes ; vertex nitidulous and obsoletely punctate, somewhat broad behind 

 the ocelli and with the occiput centrally emarginate ; face somewhat dull 

 and slightly elevated longitudinally in the centre, with large, somewhat 

 close punctures and black pubescence ; clpyeus not broad, centrally 

 strongly depressed and punctate, produced into a truncate tooth on either 

 side ; mandibles broad, ob.soletely punctate and centrally canaliculate 

 towards the apex ; palpi red, of cj flavous or white. Antennae obsoletely 

 pilose and entirely black ; scape excised nearly to its base ; flagellum fili- 

 form throughout, of S nearly as long as the body. Thorax immaculate ; 

 mesonotum strongly nitidulous with short black pilosity, longitudinally 



