Ephialtes.] BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 41 



pectinate with the spicula red ; J ventral valvulae elongate and apically 

 acuminate. Legs not elongate, clear red with the hind tarsi and tibiae 

 reddish brown and the extreme base of the latter whitish ; (J with the 

 anterior legs basally flavous and the hind tibiae internally whitish in the 

 centre ; first joint of front tarsi excised with the calcar internally eniargi- 

 nate and apically pectinate, basal joint of their trochanters subconstricted ; 

 penultimate hind tarsal joint very small and one third shorter than the 

 apical, its claws small, curved and not very strongly lobate basally. Wings 

 ver}- slightly clouded, with the stigma piceous and basally paler ; radix 

 and tegulae dull flavidous ; radius curved, areolet broad-triangular and 

 subsessile, nervelet distinct ; lower wings with the basal abscissa of the 

 radius hardly longer than the second recurrent nervure ; nervellus sub- 

 opposite and intercepted in the centre. Length, 15-18 mm. 



From its British congeners, this species is at once known by its size, 

 the not or hardly bicarinate metanotum, lack of abdominal tubercles and 

 the coloration of the (J ; the basal position of the external cubital ner- 

 vure also appears distinctive. It is closely related to several Continental 

 species, but may be at once recognised by the dense and white facial 

 pubescence, the longer lower mandibular tooth, its elongate radical callosi- 

 ties, obsolete metanotal sulcus and the elongate, apically acuminate J 

 \entral \alvulae. 



It has a wide distribution through northern and central Europe and is 

 certainly the commonest of its genus A\ith us, though the male is very 

 rarely met with ; and is found on palings and flying about tree-trunks 

 from late May to the end of September. It was recorded from England 

 so long ago as 1634 under the name i\Iusca tiipilia sccuiida by T. Moufet'" ; 

 and it is very probable that Marsham's notes, already mentioned, refer to 

 this species. I can, however, find no direct mention <jf the species before 

 1856, when examples existed in the British Museum. Fitch has bred 

 both sexes somewhat doubtfully from Cynips Kollari galls (Entom. 1879, 

 p. 116 ct 1880, p. 258). It is recorded from Sussex (Morley, Vict. Hist.) ; 

 Glanvilles Wootton, in Dorset (Dale) ; New Forest (Miss Chawner), 

 where Donisthorpe took it inserting its terebra into the boring of Calli- 

 dium violacnnn (Ent. Rec. 1898, p. 303). I have seen specimens from 

 Bury St. Edmunds, in June (Butler) ; Boars Hill, Oxford, in June (Hamm) ; 

 Devon (Hocking) ; Shere, in Surrey (Caj)ron) ; Feldon, in Herts. (Piffard) ; 

 Lyndhurst in July, August and September (Adams) ; and Tostock, in 

 Suffolk (Tuck). I have captured females at Bramford, in the same county, 

 on 25th September ; and not rarely in the middle of June, flying along a 

 rush-screen, in Tuddenham Fen, in the vicinity of Cryptorhynchus lapaihi, 

 in 1900. The only male that has come under my notice was bred from — 

 ? Sesia bemhccifonnis in — osiers, at Boxworth in Cambs. by Thornhill, in 

 the middle of June, 1902. I have also lately found it at Assington 

 I'hicks. 



Ratzeburg bred this species in Germany (Ichn. d. Forst. i. 119) from a 

 brood of Pogonochcrus pilostis, Fab. {doilotus, Fourc.) ; and (I.e. ii. 99) a 

 male, five and a half lines long with the scape stramineous beneath, the 

 clypeus rufescent, face silky and rcmarkablv short legs, out oi Solix Capira 

 in which Obiira oculala had been boring {cf. Trans. Ent. Soc. 1907, p. 32); 

 he also records it from Saperda populma, Ciiambyx Ilcros, Pissodes notalus, 



" Taleni anno 73, observavit Pennius semel tantutn hanc inuscain circa Ilinnin^hani, olim 

 Coinitis Oxoniensis castrum videsse memorat Pennius : nisi semel in Cantio circa Greenhive visa 

 purliibetiir a Peniiio." (Ins. Theatr. 64). 



