118 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. [Pi/npla. 



40. Bridgmani, Bignell. 



Pimpla Bridgmani, Bignell, E. M. M. 1894, p. 255 ; Trans. Devon. Nat. Hist. 

 Soc. 1894, ? . 



Head black, subcubical and somewhat rounded behind the subentire 

 eyes ; vertex nearly glabrous and distinctly bordered basally ; frons gla- 

 brous and not centrally canaliculate ; face strongly contracted to mouth 

 and sparsely grey haired; with the palpi and two marks immediately below 

 the scrobcs alone pale. Antennae twenty -jointed, pale piceous and exactly 

 filiform throughout; scape stramineous beneath with the pedicellus nearly 

 as large as the scape proper. Thorax narrow, castaneous with the pleurae, 

 sternum, and disc of the meso- and meta-thoraces centrally, testaceous ; 

 mesonotum somewhat elongately pilose with the notauli very deeply 

 impressed, coalescent and nearly reaching the base ; metanotum glabrous 

 and distinctly canaliculate longitudinally in the centre ; petiolar area 

 hardly declived, basally obsolete and apically bordered ; spiracles cir- 

 cular. Scutellum and postscutellum flavous, subconvex and not small. 

 Abdomen testaceous-piceous, subglabrous, parallel-sided and not broader 

 than the thorax ; first segment not basally excavate, centrally subcanalicu- 

 late and aciculate ; following laterally tuberculate before the slightly 

 elevated apices ; terebra one-fourth the length of the abdomen. Legs 

 testaceous with all the apical tarsal joints, apices of the hind femora and 

 tibiae, the latter also before their subconstricted base and the apices of 

 all the hind tarsal joints, infuscate ; front femora and tibiae not arcuate ; 

 hind tarsi with the three apical joints hardly longer than broad and the 

 pulvilli very large. Wings h3'aline with all the nervures and the stigma 

 luteous ; basal abscissa of the radius hardly longer than half the apical ; 

 areolet with the exterior nervure at least centrally distinct ; nervellus 

 sinuate and intercepting distinctly below the centre. Length, 5 mm. 



By the courtesy of Mr. Bignell I have been enabled to draw up the 

 above more detailed description of this species from the unique female 

 in his collection ; to me it appears to be much more closely related to 

 Acrodactyla than to Pimpla, but the at least centrally distinct external ner- 

 vure of the areolet excludes it from the former genus, and it must, at all 

 events for the present, be placed here. It is a very slender species and 

 the colouration gives rise to some doubt as to its maturity, especially since 

 the apical flagellar joints are shrunken and ill-formed. 



It was bred in south Devonshire from a spider, Drassiis /apidicolais, 

 Walck., and is at present quite unknown elsewhere. 



Since the above was written I have discovered in my collection what is 

 undoubtedly a male specimen of this species, since it agrees with it in 

 every particular except in its entirely white face and frontal orbits, and 

 rather more distinctly punctate abdomen. It has quite the same imma- 

 ture appearance as the female, though the abdomen is a little darker, with 

 its ventral valvulae exserted. Its length is 4 mm. It was captured by 

 Dr. Capron, presumably at Shere, in Surrey, about 1880. 



POLYSPHINCTA, Gnwcnhorst. 

 Gr. I. E. iii (1829). 112. 



Head shortly transverse, usually nitidulous, not buccate, but generally 

 distinctly narrowed posteriorly ; frons flat and slightly impressed above 

 the antennae ; eyes prominent and oval, more or less emarginate next the 

 antennae ; face subprotuberant and narrower than the frons, a little con- 



