Pimp/a.] BRITISH ICHNEUMONS 99 



mesonotum evenly punctate and shining, with the notauli almost wanting ; 

 metathorax transversely aciculate-punctate with no areae, petiolar region 

 glabrous and nitidulous, spiracles ovate and longer than broad ; of ^ 

 with grey pilosity. Scutelluni immaculate, subconvex, finely punctate 

 throughout with griseous pilosity. Abdomen closely and evenly punctate 

 and somewhat dull ; of (^ subcylindrical, longer and a little narrower 

 than the head and thorax, of 9 oblong ovate, nearly double length of and 

 as broad as thorax ; first segment basally scrobiculate and bicarinate ; 

 segments with all the apical margins nitidulous though hardly elevated 

 and not laterally tuberculatc, often apically castaneous; terebra setigerous, 

 about half length of the abdomen. Legs red or fulvous, with coxae and 

 trochanters black ; anterior tibiae more or less pale-banded before their 

 base ; hind legs somewhat elongate, dead black with the femora except 

 their extreme apices red, and a pure white band before the base of the 

 tibiae ; hind claws nigrescent, much longer than the pulvilli and apically 

 curved, of 9 not basally lobed. Wings somewhat clouded and broad ; 

 stigma and radius black or piceous, with base and apex of the former 

 pale ; radix and usually tegulae of j stramineous, of 9 ferrugineous and 

 generally anteriorly white ; areolet, sessile or subsessile ; nen'ellus inter- 

 cepting far above the centre. Length, 4 — 10 mm. 



At once recognised by the oval metathoracic spiracles, slender and fili- 

 form antennae, black coxae and basallv white hind tibiae. The meta- 

 thoracic sculpture is not quite constant though its apex is always subgla- 

 brous ; the ^ rarely has the hind tibiae rufescent before their apices and 

 the basal pale band, usually pure white, is sometimes rufescent, as in 

 P.sfrigipleuris, though in the present species the metapleurae are puncteite 

 throughout. 



1 have little doubt that P. bi/iiitata, Brulle, is no more than a form of this 

 species, having the metanotum centrally canaliculate throughout and the 

 hind tibial pale band often obsolete in the 9 > though very distinct in the 

 (5 , which has not hitherto been described : it differs from the 9 in nothing 

 but sexual characters. I possess four specimens of this variety, which 

 has not before been noticed in Britain : (i and 2) One of each sex bred, 

 on 8th and qth of August, 1896, from the pupae oi Tor/rix sp. whose larvae 

 were found feeding on mountain ash at Corfe Castle, in Dorset, bv Mr. 

 E. R. Bankes. (3) A 9 bred in 1907 by Dr. IMcDougall at Kdin'bugh 

 from the chrysalis of a plum-feeding Toririx larva — probably T.xylostcana. 

 (4) A $ bred on 26th July, 1902, from a chr)-salis of Niphopttryx gtfiis- 

 iella, found by Bankes in the Isle of Purbeck : this specimen emerged 

 through an irregularly circular hole in the face of the pupa, before the 

 capital extremity. 



1 have seen no females which I can assign to this species and, if not 

 mixed with of those P. furionellar, they must be very rare. The males, 

 on the contrary, are extremely abundant in Britain. I'hey are generally 

 taken from May i6th to the end of June flying about oak, hazel and birch 

 bushes in woods, where they may also be swept from the low herbage, in 

 the very hottest weather. They are rarely seen out of woods, though I 

 have swept them in the open fen at Wicken, in Cambs. It, however, still 

 occurs, though nuK:h more sparingly, through July up to August 29th. It 

 is very little attracted by fk)\vers, tiiough rarely taken on whitethorn blos- 

 som in the spring and carrot flowers in the late summer. I have found it 

 in Suffolk at iJunwich, Reydon, Bentley Woods, Brandon, IMildcnhall, 

 Assington Thicks, Monk Park Wood, and Kye; as well as at Norton Wood 



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