Pimpla.] BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 105 



It is very common throughout Europe and extends to northern Africa. 

 It has been bred by Ratzeburg from pupae oi Tort fix virida7ia, 7'. chlorana, 

 7'. //rm/w in August, T. laivigana \w ]\\\\^, T. pnintana, Bombyx neiistria, 

 Tima padella, from a Psyche case and perhaps from 'J'itiea acerifoliella ; by 

 Taschenburg from Coleophora tiliella ; by Giraud from Hyponomeuta cogna- 

 tella, Psyche calvella, Grapholitha tripunctona ?a\^ Nemaius salicis ; Brischke 

 further "gives as hosts Psyche nitidella, Laverna epilobiella, Depressaria hiter- 

 mediella, Nephopteryx vacciniella, a spiders' nest and bred hyperparasitically 

 from a Tortrix larva through a Mioogaster cocoon. In Britain it has been 

 bred from Gimcptcryx rhamni (Buckler) ; from Tortrix viridima, Argy- 

 resthia nitidella, Gracillaria stigmatella (Entom. i88i, p. 141) ; Eurymene 

 dolabraria, PJndopisa leplastriana, Lithocollefis cavella (I.e. 1884, p. 68) ; 

 at the end of June from Tortrix riheana in Devon (Bignell), and 

 from both Noctua hrunnea and several females from pupa of Odotiestis 

 potatoria (Proc. S. Lond. Soc. 1896, pp. 84-5). Common in Norfolk 

 (Bridgman), very common at Gunthwaite, Holgate, Storthes Woods, 

 Grimescar and Lastingham, in Yorks (Bairstow), Essex (Harwood) Hast- 

 tings (Butterfield), Birmingham (Bradley), Rye House and Hunstanton 

 (Brunetti), Dargavel and Bonhill (Mallock), Langham Herring, amongst 

 firs early in May (Richardson), Worksop (Houghton), Ripley and Woking 

 (INIorice), Theddlethorpe in Lines (Gibbs), Ampton in Suffolk (Nurse), 

 Braidburn, Dirleton and on spruce in April near Gififord in Haddington 

 (Evans), Brockenhurst (Cross), Lyndhurst (Adams), Tostock (Tuck), 

 Dorking (Butler), Delamere Forest (Tomlin), Blackheath (Beaumont), 

 Shere (Capron), Deal sandhills (Sladen), Greenings (W. Saunders), Hor- 

 field near Bristol and Lynmouth (Charbonnier), Cadney in Lines (Pea- 

 cock), Poolthorn and Manton Common in north Lines ('rhornley), Felden 

 (Piffard), Pollokshields and Johnstone in Scotland (Dalglish). I have 

 taken specimens at Barnby Broad, Brandon, Foxhall, Dodnash, South- 

 wold, Covehithe Broad, Easton Broad and Depden, and swept the female 

 in the Bramford marshes in October, in Suffolk ; at Hollington near 

 Hastings and Matley Bog in the New Forest. 



32. alternans, Grav. 



Pimpla alternans, Gr. I. E. iii. 201 ; Ratz. Ichn. d. Forst. ii. 92; Tasch. Zeits. 

 Ges. Nat. 1863, p. 56; Schra. Zool. Jahrb. 1888, p. 491, <? ? ; cf. Voll. Pinac. 

 pi. ix, fig 8 et Kriech. Ent. Naclir. 1887, p. 116. P. tricincta, Thorns. O. E. viii. 

 748 et xiii. 1408, <? ? . 



A dull black species with short, obsolete thoracic pilosity and tricoloured 

 tibiae. Length, 5 — 10 mm. 



Instantly known from the last-described species, which it exactly resem- 

 bles, by the short, somewhat sparse and subsetigerous mesonotal pilosity 

 and the entirely black abdomen ; the colour of the legs is also usually, 

 though not always different. Thomson evidently co-mingled his P. tri- 

 cincta with P. maculato/, since he says the 9 of the former may be known 

 by the red colouration before the black apices of the hind tibiae, which is 

 (as I have shown) a nearly constant character of the latter. Kriechbau- 

 mer says "whereas in P. macula/or the colour of the stigma appears infus- 

 cate-piceous with the base and apex pale, it is in P. alternans j)iceo-griseous 

 with dark brown thickened front and hind margins ; " but, although often 

 present, the paler stigma is not constant. Schmiedeknecht followed 

 Gravenhorst and Thomson in noting the distinction of the thoracic pube- 



