Meniscus.] BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 231 



body ; scape entirely flavous beneath ; flagellum basally pitchy, but 

 becoming gradually paler towards the apex, which is nearly ferrugineous. 

 Thorax gibbo-cylindrical ; elongate callosities before the radix, the region 

 of the wanting sternauli triangularly, the wliole of the pro- and extreme 

 apex of the meso-sternum, bright flavous. Scutellum immaculate. Abdo- 

 men cylindrical, with the five basal segments elongate and the sixth quad- 

 rate ; the second to the fifth apically glabrous and subelevated ; ventral 

 fold distinct and extending to the fifth segment. T.egs fulvous ; all the 

 coxae and trochanters flavous, the hind pair fulvous above ; the hind tro- 

 chanters above and the tarsi infuscate. Wings slightly flavescent ; the 

 radix and tegulae stramineous, stigma testaceous ; areolet subsessile, 

 ner\ellus subopposite and intercepted below the centre. Length, 1 1 mm. 



The entire clypeus at once precludes its insertion in the genus Ephialtes. 



There are three broken male " specimens taken by F. Walker, Esq.," 

 from Desvignes' collection in the British Museum, which I have exam- 

 ined.] 



This species is recognised with the greatest facility by th(> peculiar con- 

 formation of the frons and occiput, which are both very deeply excavate, 

 rendering the vertex centrally narrow and subcariniform ; the frontal ex- 

 cavation runs semicircularly from behind the apical ocellus to level with 

 the scrobes, and is glabrous and substriate, with the frontal orbits elevated 

 above the eyes. Schmiedeknecht sajs that M. sclosus is similarly con- 

 formed but this is not the case, the frons in that species being simply a 

 little impressed. 



It is not uncommon on the Continent in woods from .May to July; and 

 Gravenhorst says that Hope found it at Netley in Shropshire. As to its 

 hosts, nothing reliable is known ; Ratzeburg (Ichn. d. Forst. iii. 107) says 

 that a 9 ) somewhat doubtfully referred to this sjjecies, was bred from an 

 unknown coleopterous larva, which he supposed to be that of some Bu- 

 pnsiis, in rotten lime wood {cf. also Trans. Ent. Soc. iqoy, p. 15). Brischke, 

 on the contrary, mentions having bred it from some Xoctua larva and 

 describes its cocoon as pale brown, elliptical and shining. It is not rare 

 in England and Scotland, though no one has recorded or bred it. I pos- 

 sess females tiiken at Lidford, in Devon, on ist July, 1892 by Marshall ; 

 Shere in Surrey by Caprori ; Treipmuir in .Midlothian on i8th August, 

 1904, by Evans ; Dundgwald and l^arr in Ayrshire in July, 1900 by Dal- 

 glish ; and Bonhill by Malloch. The males appear to be rarer and I have 

 only three, from Gadder in the middle of July by Dalglish ; Xethy Ikidge 

 at the end of July, 1904, by Col. Yerbury ; and l'\l(len by PifFard. I have 

 taken the female in Suffolk, by sweejjing long rank herbage in liarnby 

 Broad, on 5th July, 1906. Marshall instiuices it (ICntom. 1872-3, p. 432) 

 as having been captured by Francis Walker in iSoq in the Isle of Man. 



