Polrsphiiichi.] BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 129 



femora stout ; the anterior stramineous, and the hind ones dull fulvescent 

 with the trochanters stramineous, tibiae apically and internally and before 

 the base infuscate, their tarsi ferrugineous with the first joint basally pale 

 and the apical explanate. Wings slightly clouded ; stigma nigrescent or 

 fulvescent, radix and tegulae white ; nervellus antefurcal and intercepting 

 below the centre. Length, 3I — 5mm. 



This species is at once known from all other indigenous kinds by the 

 very dull and thickly pubescent thorax, the colour of which is similar to 

 the strongly nitidulous one of P. multicolora, though the terebra is very 

 much shorter in the present. The male has not before been described ; 

 it differs very slightly from the 9 in its paler abdomen and smaller size. 



1 found oiie male and three females of this very distinct species in Dr. 

 Capron's collection, mixed \\\\h P. percontatoria ; they were in all proba- 

 bility taken about Shere in Surrey. It has not before been recorded from 

 Britain and, although it occurs sparingly throughout northern and central 

 Europe, there are no notes of its yet having been bred. 



7. percontatoria, Miill. 

 Ichiicuiiwii percontatoriiis, Miill. Prodr. 154, ? . Poly sphincta percontatoria, 

 Gr. I. E. iii. 120, excl. var. 2 ; Tasch. Zeits. Ges. Nat. 1863, p. 270, ? . P. plioe- 

 nicea, Hal. Ann. Nat. Hist. 1839, p. 116, cT ? . P. sciitellaris, Holragr. Sv. Ak. 

 Handl. 1860, n. 10, p. 33, <? . P. pidchrator. Thorns. O. E. viii. 757, i ? ; 

 cf. lib. cit. xii. 1253. 



Black and somewhat shining, with the thorax more or less red. Head 

 hardly narrowed behind the eyes, mouth white ; ^ with the clypeus api- 

 cally fulvescent and centre of the mandibles also white. Antennae with 

 the scape basally white beneath. Thorax gibbous ; a line beneath and a 

 callositv before the radix, usually also the base of the mesopleurae, white; 

 mesonotum not dull, discally or two marks castaneous, and sometimes the 

 sternum also rufescent ; metanotum with the areola narrow, parallel-sided 

 and apically entire ; petiolar area small and entire. Scutcllum and post- 

 scutellum entirely or only apically castaneous. Abdomen sessile and 

 subcylindrical, very slightly longer than the head and thorax and as broad 

 as the latter, of ^ sometimes dorsally ferrugineous; basal segment hardly 

 longer than the hind coxae, distinctly bicarinate and on either side 

 depressed before the apex ; second to fourth segments subbadious, aluta- 

 ceous and shining, with an impressed subarcuate line before the apex and 

 another on either side at the base, centrally a little pointed and raised, 

 but not circularly tuberculate ; terebra one sixth of the abdomen. Legs 

 not ver)' slender, fulvous and darker in $ ; anterior coxae and trochanters 

 white ; hind coxae basally black, their trochanters and tibiae whitish, the 

 latter with the apices and sometimes a subobsolete band before the base 

 nigrescent ; their tarsi concolorous with the third and fifth joints of equal 

 length. Wings hyaline and iridescent with the stigma and radius infus- 

 cate, radix and tegulae white ; hind wing with the cubital nervure not 

 wanting basally ; its first recurrent straight, with the nerA'ellus entirely 

 wanting. Length, 4 — 6 mm. 



This may at once be known from all our otluT indigenous species except 

 the next-described by the unintercepted first recurrent nervure of the 

 lower wing, which has no nervellus at all ; its legs and general outline 

 are more slender than those of P. carhotiata ; it is smaller with the femora 

 stouter than P. pallidipfs, Holmgr., and Gravenhorst says that the sub- 

 marginal ner\urc is shorter than in any of the other species of this genus 

 known to hini. K 



