174 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. [S/ilhops. 



basally attenuate antennae superficially ally it. Thomson, whose excellent 

 description Schmiedeknecht appears to have entirely overlooked, considers 

 the abdominal puncturation to resemble that of the Tiyphonhuif ; and the 

 latter remarks that the stigma is sometimes red-yellow, though I find it 

 always uniform castaneous, with the margins a little darker, in Britain. As 

 to the synonymy, no doubt can be entertained that P. chrysostomus has 

 priority ; and the two co-types of Dr. Capron's species, which are now in 

 my collection, are typical 9 9 of the present insect. This species is 

 remarkably constant in colouration. There can remain no doubt respect- 

 ing the synonomy herewith of L. pall id i pes, (}rav. ; the wonder is that they 

 have not hitherto been associated. 



The only other member of this genus is .S'. limiufiae/ormis, Schm., and 

 differs in its more slender body, entirely black abdomen, sparser facial 

 pilosity, the apical half of the flagellum flavous with the apical joint as 

 long as the three preceding together, less distinct metanotal areae, much 

 more strongly elevated disc of the postpetlole and the dull-white stigma. 

 Only two German 9 9 are known. 



S. chiysostoma is said to be apparently rare by Schmiedeknecht, who only 

 records it from England and Germany ; Thomson, however, mentions it 

 from Sweden, Kirchner from Italy and Tosquinet in May from Belgium. 

 Gravenhorst was strangely ignorant of it ; he took one male among under- 

 growth on I St June near Pepelwitz and had only seen two females at 

 Berlin, in King's collection. In Britain, on the contrary, it is one of the 

 ver}' commonest of the spring Ichneumonidae, though perhaps local and 

 certainly only found in woods, where it ma\- be beaten from young ash, 

 birch, poplar and oak trees from i ith ;\lay to 19th June. Sometimes it is 

 seen flying low over herbage and is not infrequently taken by sweeping. 

 Bignell recounts (E. M. M. 1897, p. 159) how he obtained forty-three 

 males and twenty-three females on a cloudy day sitting about the lea\es of 

 a small beech tree in the Bickleigh Woods, near Plymouth, on 5th May ; 

 this was, however, his first aquaintance with the species and, curiously 

 enough, I first met with it at Ipswich about the same time. It has occurred 

 to me annually since then, often in the utmost profusion, in Suffolk, in the 

 Bentley Woods, Assington Thicks — where I beat a pair /;/ cop. on 21st 

 May, 1899 {cf. Trans. Leicester Soc. 1899, p. 296) — and Brandon; in 

 Essex at Gosfield ; and in the New Forest at Wilverley, Matley Bog, 

 Brockenhurst and Denny Wood. I have not often received it, though 

 Brunetti has sent it me from Croydon, Beaumont from Oxshott and Plum- 

 stead, Piffard from Felden in Herts., Cross from Brockenhurst and Adams 

 from Lyndhurst. The only three records are by Marshall, who introduced 

 it as British, under the name Phytodictux tcIuIus, in 1870, from Lastingham 

 in Yorks, Bridgman Irom Earlham near Norwich and Bloomfield from 

 Guestling, near Hastings. It is evidently parasitic upon some little-bred 



