214 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. [Lt'ssonota. 



mesopleurae punctate ; metathorax longer than broad, subrugosely punc- 

 tate, with a slight longitudinal impression and the petiolar area basally 

 strong. Scutellum of 9 usually transversely red in the centre, of (J 

 laterally flavous. Abdomen of 9 very finely aciculate subtransversely 

 throughout, of ^ punctate and somewhat dull ; apices of the three basal 

 segments narrowly rufescent; basal segment fully twice longer than broad, 

 more slender and proportionately elongate in ^, subcanaliculate in 9 

 only; second and third distinctly longer than broad in both sexes; 

 apical segments of 9 nitidulous and subglabrous, of ^ pubescent ; tere- 

 bra as long as the abdomen. Legs slender and red with the anterior 

 trochanters Aiore or less infuscate and in (5^ , as well as most of the coxae, 

 flavous ; hind trochanters black, their tibiae except centrally and tarsi 

 infuscate, ^ hind coxae concolourous and sometimes apically flavescent. 

 Wings with the stigma infuscate ; tegulae of 9 piceous, of $ flavous ; 

 areolet subpentagonal or triangularly petiolate, with the outer nervure 

 sometimes obsolete ; nervellus intercepting only just above the lower 

 angle. Length, about 7 mm. 



The extent of the ^ flavidous and 9 scutellar markings is variable and 

 sometimes nearly obsolete. Bridgman says that it differs from L. bigut- 

 tata, Holmgr., in having the central segments decidedly longer than broad 

 and the hind trochanters quite black ; these points he found to be con- 

 stant in over forty examples of both sexes. 



Schmiedeknecht in 1900 synonymized this species with L. 7'ariabilis, 

 Holmgr., with which, however, Bridgman was quite familiar and the broad 

 discrepancies in the two descriptions leave no room for doubt that they 

 are diff"erent. In L. rufomedia the cheeks are immaculate and the $ 

 facial orbits alone flavous ; the scape immaculate beneath ; the 9 pro- 

 pleurae are rufescent and the $ pronotum immaculate ; the 9 scutellum 

 is only centrally red ; the basal segment not longitudinally striate in the 

 (5, the central segments are elongate ; the hind trochanters are entirely 

 black ; the 9 tegulae piceous and, above all, the terebra is only as long as 

 the abdomen. If, however, one is not inclined to rely upon the terebral 

 length as a constant character, though so many individuals of L. ru/omedi'a 

 were bred, it might be regarded as a form of L. variabilis, to which its 

 sculpture most certainly very closely allies it. 



Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher bred forty specimens of both sexes from Eudorea 

 ynurana at Rannoch, E. mercurella at Worthing and Crambiis coniaminellus 

 at Worthing, as recorded {loc. cit.) by Bridgman. No one else has met 

 with it ; but on 13th August, 1901, I swept a female at Denny Wood, in 

 the New Forest, strongly resembling L. variabi/is from which it mainly 

 differs in having the terebra no longer than the abdomen and must, I 

 think, be referred to the present species, which Bignell also records from 

 Bickleigh at the end of July and Vinstone, Devon, in the middle of August. 



