Piiiiphi.] BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 107 



1900; and Porritt, who has found it in the Wharncliffe Woods, has also 

 bred it in Yorkshire ; Piflfard has taken it at Felden, Charbonnier at 

 Bristol, Tomlin in the Bentley Woods, Capron at Shere, Adams at Lynd- 

 hurst. Tuck at Tostock ; and I have noticed it at Assington in May, Alde- 

 burgh, Brandon, females swept from reeds at Southwold and one on an 

 ivy leaf at Belstead, in Suffolk, as late as 29th October, which points 

 to hibernation. Dours records it (Hym. B'rance, 14) as parasitic upon 

 Xtfiiatus intiiriis in galls on sallow. 



33. epeirae, Bignell. 

 Pimpla epeirae, Bignell, E. M. M. 1893, p. 37. ? . 



Black. Head smooth and immaculate. Antennae as long as the abdo- 

 men ; flagellum 2 2-jointed, ferrugineous throughout beneath. Mesonotum 

 nitidulous, obsoletely punctate and pilose ; metanotum more strongly 

 punctate and centrally bicarinate. Scutellum black and obsoletely punc- 

 tate. Abdomen nearly double length of head and thorax deeplv punc- 

 tate ; basal segment as long as its apical breadth ; the four following only 

 half as long as broad, remainder constricted to the anus; second and 

 third segments partly ferrugineous, second to fifth with their apical third 

 elevated aud nitidulous ; terebra nearly as long (2 mm.) as the thorax. 

 Legs ferrugineous with the apices of the hind tibiae and of their tarsal 

 joints, with all the onychii, infuscate. Wings 13 mm. in expanse ; the 

 piceous stigma basally whitish ; areolet pentagonal, not broader than 

 long ; about half the outer cubital recurrent nervure and two portions of 

 theexteriordiscoidal recurrent pellucid. Length, 7 — 8 mm. 



I have a (5 9 > which must certainly be referred to this species; the ^ has 

 unfortunately lost its head and front legs : the female palpi are testaceous 

 and the piceous clypeus is apically not emarginate ; the nervellus in both 

 sexes is slightly postfurcal and intercepting hardly above the centre ; the 

 metathoracic spiracles are very small and quite circular, the notauli obso- 

 lete, the flagellum subattenuate towards its base, the cheeks verj' short, 

 all the coxae black, the second to fourth (or in ^ fifth) segments bright 

 brick-red with their apices black and distinct, transversely broad lateral 

 tubercles. It is certainly a good and distinct species, differing from all 

 other Itopledes in its very distinct abdominal tubercles and strongly elevated 

 segmental apices, in colour related perhaps to Forster's name uifasta. 

 The colour of the abdomen is, however, very variable : one of the original 

 females, lent me by its author, is entirely black. 



Bignell described this species from four females, one of which is in the 

 ]^ritish -"Museum, bred on 7th July, 1891, from their own light yellow, ten- 

 millimetres-long and four-broad cocoons, which formed a compact mass 

 within the egg-bag of a spider, Epiira cornu/a, obtained in June at Ivy- 

 bridge, in south Devon. My pair were bred by Miss Chawner from a 

 "spider's nest, Burley, July," in the New Forest ; and the cocoons, which 

 are very pale yellow, surrounded by pale green curling threads, are inter- 

 woven upon one another. 



34. curticauda, Kriech. 

 Piiiiplct curticauda, Kriech. Ent. Nachr. 1887, p. 120; Schm. Zool. Jahrb. 1888, 

 p. 488; Strobl. Mitt. Nat, Ver. St. 1901. p. 10. ? ; Schm. Opusc. Ichn. 1069. <^ ? . 

 P. clavicornis, Thorns. O.E. xiii. 1409, ? . 



A black species with subclavate antennae and sharply banded hind 

 tibiae and tarsi. Head short, almost broader than the thorax, strongl) 



