254 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. \Procinetns. 



This species is said to occur in central Europe in June and July. It 

 was introduced as British by Desvignes on the strength of specimens in 

 the British Museum collection, which I have not examined ; Harwood 

 records it from Essex in his Victoria History list ; and Bignell tells us he 

 has bred it on both the yth April and 4th May from Gortyna flavago ; 

 Cross and Norgate have raised it from the same host, according to Buck- 

 ler. On the Continent, however, where Kriechbaumer thought it possibly 

 parasitic upon an oak-feeding Tortrix, Schmiedeknecht says he has always 

 found it on short-turfed hill-sides covered with Euphorbia cyparissias, 

 which is not indigenous though often found in Britain. And it is upon 

 the longicorn beetle, Obcj-ea ( Amaurostovia ) ervthrocepha/a, Schr., living, as 

 was first suggested by Panzer, in the stalks of this plant that P. decimator 

 is suspected of preying. I think its hosts more likelv to be lepidopterous. 



LAMPRONOTA, Haliday. 

 Hal. Ann. Nat, Hist. 1839, p. 120. 



Clypeus discreted and apically subtruncate ; frons convex and sugbla- 

 brous. Antennae elongate, filiform and slender ; flagellar joints not dis- 

 creted, the fir-st elongate, J' with third at apex and fourth at base externally 

 excised. Thorax stout, gibbulo- cylindrical ; mesonotum anteriorly ele- 

 vated and perpendicular, notauli very deeply impressed ; metathoracic 

 areola coalesced with basal area, its longitudinal costae straight, parallel 

 and entire from base to apex ; lateral costae distinct; petiolar area short, 

 basallv curved and costate ; spiracles oblong and transverse. Abdomen 

 subsessile, evenly convex ; basal segment dull, scabriculous and convex ; 

 anus subcompressed and laterally clavate, of 9 with the venter apically 

 cleft, the valvulae obtuse and terebra elongate. Hind legs distinctly 

 a little stout, their tarsi and tibiae dark ; tarsal claws simple. Areolet 

 entirely wanting. 



Probably the most natural position for this ver}' distinct genus is among 

 the Acaenitides, as was originally suggested by Haliday; the deep notauli 

 and incrassate hind legs are very similar, but wherever placed, the unique 

 conformation of the $ flagellum will render that sex abundantly distinct ; 

 both sexes are at once known from the remainder of the Lissonotides by 

 the entire metathoracic longitudinal carinae and, though with more un- 

 certainty (for several species of Lissonota and JMeiiiscns, e.g. Z. variabilis 

 and M. sidcator, occasionally have this cell externally pellucid or entirely 

 wanting), by the absence of all trace of the outer nervure of the areolet. 

 Lavipronoia defectiva, Grav., has long stood in our lists, but I am of opinion 

 it is really referable to the genus Meniscus, as compared by its author ; 

 and it certainly is not synonymous with L. mdancholica, as it is treated by 

 modern authors, for the terebra, in this genus at least, appears of very 

 constant length to me, a view in which our Continental friends are not 

 prone to concur. 



