96 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. \Pimplo. 



pilosity ; frons punctate with the interstices reticulate, anteriorly trans- 

 versely aciculate and centrally canaliculate throughout ; face strongly and 

 subconfluently punctate with stout piceous setae, epistoma hardly convex 

 and centrally carinate longitudinally ; clypeus centrally discreted at the 

 base and apically depressed, subglabrous with a fe\y long and coarse setae; 

 mandibles curyed with the apical teeth short, strongly obtuse and ol 

 equal length ; palpi with the three apical joints cylindrical. Antennae 

 nearly three quarters the length of the body, immaculate and gradually, 

 slightly attenuate throughout towards the apex. Tliorax dull and finely 

 scabrous throughout ; notauli obsolete ; metanotum subdeplanate with the 

 areola hardly indicated laterally ; petiolar area short and scarcely declived ; 

 spiracles large and linear. Scutellum not prominent, black and punctate. 

 Abdomen dull and finely reticulate throughout, black with the hardly 

 elevated apices of the segments rarely narrowly and obscurely castaneous ; 

 spiracles of all segments strong and enclosed by an oblique impression ; 

 basal segment finely and closely punctate with no trace of carinae beyond 

 the basal excavation; terebra two fifths of the abdomen. Legs black and 

 somewhat stout with the front tibiae and, more obscurely, their femora 

 internallv fulvescent ; claws stout and curved with no basal tooth. Wings 

 distinctly infumate throughout ; stigma, radix and tegulae black ; areolet 

 triangular and sessile, emitting the recurrent neryure from beyond its 

 centre ; nervellus curyed and strongly postfurcal, intercepting the recur- 

 rent neryure far above the centre. Length, i3i^ — 20 mm. 



The $ differs from the abo\'e description in but a few imimportant 

 particulars: — I'he basal segment is more strongly and elongately bicarinate 

 centrally ; the hind tibiae are usually dull piceous throughout ; the inter- 

 mediate are basally testaceous ; the front legs have the tibiae, and the 

 tarsi entirely, and the femora internally, testaceous and its wings are 

 sometimes less deeply clouded. 



The hind coxae of this species are much more densely and finely punc- 

 tate than those of P. instigator, which it much resembles superficially, but 

 the whole body is decidedly duller and more closely sculptured, the legs 

 nearly entirely black and the wings clouded. 



P. aethiops has not been described since Curtis and (iravenhorst brought 

 it forward under distinct names, and then only in the female sex ; there 

 are six males and four females in the British INIuseum from which I have 

 been enabled to draw the above adequate account of this hitherto little 

 known species. 



I am not yet satisfied that P. at'thiops and P. atcrriiua are entirely synony- 

 mous. P. atirrima appears to be an intermediate form, since Taschen- 

 berg who examined Gravenhorst's types, says it " is like P. examinator in 

 form and the proportion of the parts, but in sculpture resembles P. instiga- 

 tor, excepting that here the hind coxae are more densely punctate." 



Gravenhorst described P. atcrritna from a male and two fen:iales taken 

 by Hope about Netley in Shropshire, a third female from Ptirma and a 

 smaller one from Warmbrunn, in Silesia. I can find no subsequent 

 records of it either here or abroad. One of the specimens of P. aetliiops 

 in the British Museum was bred from a chrysalis of Papilio Machaon by 

 Desvignes, while three of the males and one female were raised from 

 Laelia caenosa, both rare fen insects. Curtis originally described it as 

 " bred from the pupa of Arctia caenosa.'' All these records and specimens 

 are certainly antediluyian, i.e. were secured before the terribly destructive 

 fen flood of 1848 ; and I have seen no more recent specimens. 



