112 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. [Pmpla. 



in conformation as does that of P. turionellae ; I do not find that the 

 extent of the flavous capital and thoracic, nor of white pedal, decoration 

 at all coincides with the modifications of the petiolar carinae, and conse- 

 quently I can place no reliance upon it. I tentatively arrange all those 

 specimens with the basal segment more deeply canaliculate under 

 P. brassicariae and those with the apex of the basal segment subdeplanate 

 under the present species, which must fall if their synonymy come to be 

 established. As to the published records, they must be taken cum grano 

 salts; it is sufficient to know that they belong to one or other of these 

 species, which are equally common with a co-extensive range throughout 

 Europe from Scandinavia to Italy, from May to October. 



The present species is recorded as bred on the Continent by Graven- 

 horst from Phalaeiia gtvssulariala ; by Holmgren from TJnda que reus ; by 

 Drewsen (Wiegm. Arch, ii, p. 38) from Papilio iirticae ; by Boie {I.e. p. 40) 

 from Sphinx ligustri ; by Ratzeburg from Zercnc grossulariata, Liparis 

 monacha, Tortrix 7't'ridatia, T. laiTigana, Tinea popti/ella, and the cocoon of 

 Lophynis I'pini ; by Brischke from pupae of Gastropaeha neustria, Dnpana 

 falciila, Psyehe-'ieie/la, A\phopteijx irieeiniella , Aeidalia triliniaria, Spilosonia 

 merithastri, Rhodoeera rhat?mi and Pieris 7-apae ; by Ferris (Ann. Soc. Fr. 

 1877, p. 410) from Ephyra sp. and Tortrix viridajia ; and Taschenberg's 

 mention of Pimpla varieornis " aus Eiern der Kreuzspinne " is probably 

 taken from Bouche, who says (Naturg. 145) that the larva of P. mfafa 

 has been found during the winter in the nests of Aranea diadema, whose 

 eggs it devours ; he adds that they change to pupae in papyraceous, 

 white, elliptic and somewhat flattened cocoons, which are arranged side 

 by side to the number often or fifteen inside the spider's egg-sac and the 

 imagines emerge during the following spring. I should suspect some 

 error of identification in this spinning of a free cocoon by a species well 

 known to pupate within its lepidopterous host's chrysalis but Giraud (Ann. 

 Soc. Fr. 1877, p. 410) also states that he has bred it from a " nid 

 d'Araignee en boule verte." 



In Britain it has also been bred from Tortrix viridana at Birmingham 

 by Martineau ; and in South Devon by Bignell (Entom. 1881, p. 141), 

 who has further raised it from both Vanessa e-albiim and Ennomos tiliaria 

 (Entom. 1883, p. 67); and Platypteryx laeertinaria (Buckler). It is 

 recorded from Brundall and Norwich by Bridgman, and F]ssex by Har- 

 wood ; I have seen it from Birmingham (Bradley), Weymouth (Richard- 

 son), Kings Lynn (Atmore), Hastings (Butterfield), and Mr. S. Edwards 

 found it commonly at Lynton in Devon in 1890. I possess examples 

 taken at Ely by Cross in July, New Forest as early as i8th May by 

 Adams, Tresswell Wood in Notts, by Thornley, Crindle in Londonderry 

 by Wilson Saunders, Shere by Capron ; and have myself caught it flying 

 along hedges at P'elden in Herts, where Piflard has also seen it, swept it 

 from reeds in the salt-marshes at Southwold, beaten it from birch bushes 

 in Assington Thicks in Suffolk, and taken it about Ipswich. I have not, 

 however, met with it later than the first week in August ; and there appear 

 to be no records from Scotland. Both sexes were commonly seen in my 

 garden at Monks' Soham at the beginning of last June, between 3 and 

 5 p.m., searching the leaves of shrubs and sucking the flowers of Vieia 

 cracea; they flew up, in every instance, with the southerly wind and con- 

 tinued their investigations in a northerly direction. 



