246 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. [Phv/ndincfus. 



towards its base, the terebra shorter witli its valvulae more strongly 

 pilose, and the hind knees pale with a black band before their apices. 

 Schmiedeknecht (Zool. Jahr. 1900,1). 34.0) adds nothing to this, but con- 

 siders it agrees with his P. scgiuenfafor in ha\ing the hind femora and 

 tibiae not entirely black, the abdominal segments pale-banded, the thorax 

 not red marked and the scutellum partly flavous. My 9 , but not my ^ , 

 has the basal angles of the scutellum, and the apical margins of the seg- 

 ments, narrowly flavidous. It is certainly a good species, with the 

 antennae much longer and more slender than those of P. coiyphacus, and 

 darker and more attenuate apically than those of P. polyzonias. 



It has hitherto only been noted from Sweden ; but I possess a single 

 male in Capron's collection, presumably from Shere in Surrey and a single 

 female from Beaumont's collection, captured by him at Oxshott in the 

 same county on 28th September, 1892. 



5. obscurus, Desv. 



Phytodietus obscitrus, Desv. Cat. 69; Holmgr. Sv. Ak. Handl. 1860, n. 10, 

 p. 64 ; Schm. Zool. Jahr. 1900, p. 341 ; Opusc. Ichn. 1255, i ? . 



Head hardly narrowed behind the eyes ; cheeks short, space between 

 eyes and base of mandibles hardly more than half breadth of the latter ; 

 of 9 immaculate, of $ with the face, mouth, cheeks and vertical orbits, 

 flavous. Antennae slender, filiform and nearly as long as the body ; scape 

 of (J flavous beneath. Thorax gibbous and in 9 immaculate ; of J 

 often concolorous but usually with a line and callosity before the radix, 

 pleurae and sternum entirely or in part and an obscure spot on either side 

 at apex of metathorax, flavous. Scutellum with or without a pale spot on 

 either side at the base, its apex generally with an apical dot and the 

 postscutellum flavous. Abdomen nitidulous and subsessile ; apices of 

 segments two or four to seven more or less obsoletely glaucous ; basal 

 segment gradually and only slightly dilated towards the apex and in 9 

 discally sulcate ; terebra shorter than the abdomen. Legs slender and 

 fulvous with the coxae and base of trochanters black, of ^ flavous 

 beneath ; hind tibiae and tarsi infuscate with the former in 9 basally 

 ferrugineous ; hind femora imniaculate red, or infuscate at their extreme 

 apices. Wings ample, infumate-hyaline ; tegulae, costa and stigma pale 

 testaceous ; areolet triangular and subpetiolate, with the outer nervure 

 oblique. Length, 5 — 6 nmi. 



This species is very like P. coryphaeus but smaller, more slender and 

 strongly nitidulous, and at once distinguished from it by the short 

 cheeks. 



No one seems to have noticed it since Desvignes first described it 

 from two males and four females in the British Museum collection, which 



