Alt' /I / sens.] BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 239 



from near its apex, but much narrower with the nervures thicker than in 

 Phytodiaetus ; nervelkis intercepting a little below the centre. Length, 

 lo — 12 mm. 



Gravenhorst truly says that this 9 is similar in size and conformation 

 to Exefasies a/bifarsus, but with the first segment a little narrower basally ; 

 it is, indeed, remarkably like a black-bodied J/, murinits, for whicli I at 

 first mistook it, but the base of the abdomen is not at all nitidulous, the 

 antennae are much stouter and more obtuse apicall}-, the recurrent nervure 

 is emitted much nearer the apex of the areolet, etc. 



Schmiedeknecht says it is only known from Germany and Austria, and 

 is there \ery rare. Tosquinet, however, records it from Diest, where it 

 was captured by Wesmael ; and it has stood in our lists since 1856. 1 

 possess two females ; one was taken about Bury St. Edmunds by Dr. 

 \\'ratislaw many years ago, the other emerged on 12th April, 1902, from 

 its own cocoon, which exactly resembles that of M. murhius described 

 above in ever)' particular ; this was dug up at the roots of an oak tree at 

 Cardiff on 28th of the preceding month by Campbell-Taylor : hence it 

 may be presumed to prey upon some oak-feeding larva and, like its rela- 

 tive, to emerge in the early spring, since not sufficient time elapsed 

 between discovery and emergence to allow its artificial surroundings to 

 have any potent influence upon its development. Buckler, I see, records 

 it from Tiuiiioca/iipa popiihti upon Harwood's authority. 



PHYTODIAETUS. 



Pliytodietus, Grav. I.E. ii. (1829), 929. 



Body smooth and graceful, not strongly and elongately pilose. Anten- 

 nae as long as bcxly, more or less slender with the apical joints cylindrical 

 and not discreted. Notauli anteriorly distinct; metathoracic costae en- 

 tirely wanting, metapUurac- longitudinally subsulcate near the circular 

 spiracles. Scutellum somewhat convex and usually pale-marked; frenum 

 concolourous. Abdomen smooth w ith a shining bloom and not punctate, 

 often with the segments pale-margined ; anus sometimes sub-compressed ; 

 hypopygium retracted ; basal segment convex and not carinate; spiracles 

 of the second close to the lateral margin ; lerebra longer than half, but 

 not than the whole, abdomen. Tibiae s[)inulose, with their calcaria elon- 

 gate ; tarsal claws very closely and distinctly pectinate. Areolet broad 

 and obliquely triangular, emitting the recurrent nervure from hardly before 

 its apex ; nervelkis intercepting below the centre, sometimes at the lower 

 angle. 



Gravenhorst placed this genus in the Cryptinac, along with Mcsochorus 

 and Plecliscus, which are now regarded as Ophionidous. He described 



