Pimphi.] BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 79 



lana was its only inmate ; and I may further add that the saw-fly larvae 

 in the galls on the same willow-bush from which the specimen in question 

 was taken, were either in the egg or in the first moult. A day or two 

 after closing the gall, 1 re-opened it and the larva then appeared to have 

 increased in size ; this struck me as rather singular and, my curiosity 

 being awakened, I determined to watch its progress, so it w-as carefully 

 returned to the bottle. In the course of five days it had become a pupa, 

 and more than double the size of the larva when 1 first saw it, the pupa 

 itself being smaller than the full-fed larva. From this observation it 

 became clear to me that whatever the larva may have been before I 

 noticed it, it was undoubtedly, when under my scrutiny, a \egetable- 

 feeder, feeding on the juices of the gall, which I had managed always to 

 keep fresh. The following vear I endea\ oured to repeat my observations, 

 but without success, although 1 examined hundreds of galls. I did notice 

 one curious fact : in one gall 1 found a saw-fly larva, about three-fourths 

 fed, along with a parasitic larva ; but an accident prevented my seeing the 

 issue of this case of what might be termed commensalism." 



18. pictipes, GraT. 



Piiiipla pictipes, Gr. I.E. iii. 198, cf ; Tschek, Verb. z.-b. Ges. 1871, p. 38, <f ? . 

 P. graiiiinellae, Ratz. Ichn. d. Forst. ii.91, ? {nee. Holmgr.). P. Ratzeburgi, 

 Kriech. Ent. Nachr. 1887, p 84. 



Head black, hardly narrower than the thorax and scarcely constricted 

 behind the eves ; clypeus slightly emarginate apically ; face centrally 

 elevated, finely and not densely punctate ; frons subglabrous, nitidulous 

 and centrallv carinate between the scrobes ; occiput canaliculate longi- 

 tudinallv ; cheeks immaculate, (^ with mandibles except at their apices, 

 palpi and clypeus white, 9 ^^'ith clvpeus and palpi rufescent. Antennae 

 a little longer than head and thorax, twentv-two jointed and ferrugineous, 

 with the (5 scape white, beneath. Thorax subcvlindrical, black with a 

 callositv before the radix stramineous ; mesonotum shining, anteriorlv and 

 laterally distinctlv, centrallv and basallv more finely and diffusely, punc- 

 tulate ; mesopleurae finelv and diftuselv punctulate, metathorax nitidulous; 

 metanotum basally subaciculate-punctate on either side with the areola 

 sublinear, apically explanate and nearly obsolete ; petiolar region and 

 supracoxal areae glabrous and nitidulous ; spiracles circular. Scutellum 

 black. Abdomen linear-cylindrical, narrower than and double length of 

 thorax, strongly and scabrously punctate ; basal segment little longer than 

 the hind coxae, centrally elevated and bicarinate to its apex ; second a 

 little longer than broad, two following quadrate ; central segments dis- 

 tinctly tuberculate laterally and, especially basally, coarsely and confluently 

 punctate, apically smooth, shining and elevated ; terebra two-thirds the 

 length of the abdomen, with the valvulae setigerous. Legs somewhat 

 slender ; the anterior of (5 whitish-flavous with the femora fulvous above 

 and the claws black, of 9 with coxae and femora fulvous, trochanters and 

 apices of cemora and whole of tibiae flavescent, the last apically and a dot 

 before base infuscate ; hind coxae fulvous and basallv black, trochanters 

 whitish flavous, fenujra fulvous with their apices infuscate, tibiae whitish 

 or in 9 straminecjus, with their apices and a dot before the base nigre- 

 scent, tarsi nigrescent with the first joint basally white ; claws of 9 basally 

 lobate. Wings amj^le and hyaline; stigma ])iceous, radix and tegulae j^ale 

 stramineous ; areolet very small and transverse, of J subpetiolate, of 9 



