Pleciocryptus.] BRITISH irilNEUMONS. Q 



Scluiiic(.lckiiccliL ill 1S90 unsigned the picsuiil pusition to it, but in 1905, 

 probably u[)on synonymi/ing it witli Cratocryplus ru/icoxis, transrencd it 

 to the latter genus. 



'rhomson tells us the female has the hind femora apieally nigrescent 

 above, the scape brunneous beneath, all the coxae red and the Ijasal 

 segment not strongly convex. He compares this species with C. ti/Kt/on'us, 

 than which it is a little larger and longer, with the wings sub-hyaline, with 

 larger and less convergent areolet, the radial cell longer, fonujra thinner 

 and the post-annellus twice longer than the sca[)e. 



This species occurs throughout north and central luirope ; it is lound in 

 woods on Prunits padtis in May and Se[)tember, and has been bred from 

 Sesia sphegiformis in Prussia. Bignell has kindly allowed me to examine 

 the specimens he took at Longbridge and JJickleigh in June; and 1 

 possess males found at Shere, in Surrey, by Cai)ron. 



3. grisescens, Grav. 



Cryphis f^riscsieiis, Gr. I. E. ii. 464 ; Ste. 111. M. vii. 2S0 : Tnsch, Zeits. C.es. Nat. 

 1865, p. 78, 6. riectocryptiis siaiisor, Thorns. O. E. xiv. 1532, 9 ; xix. 2118, c5 ; xxi. 

 2382. 



Head, including palpi, black ; of $ sub quadrate anteriorly and not 

 narrowed behind the eyes, cheeks sub-buccate, clypeus apieally truncate 

 and discreted from the epistoma. Antennae with a more or less broad 

 central white band in both sexes ; flagellum of 9 stout, hardly attenuate 

 apieally and only slightly towards the base. Thorax immaculate, with grey 

 pilosity ; mesonotum of $ rugulose, of ^ nearly smooth, with the notauli 

 barely indicated ; areola of 9 obsolete, its costulae wanting ; mesosternum 

 smooth and very sparsely punctate, more strongly in the ? . Scutellum 

 black, of 9 small. Abdomen black, narrower than thorax, dilated in c? 

 towards the anus, of $ with fuscous pilcjsity ; post-petiole distinctly carinate 

 in S only ; second and third segments sometimes obsoletely rufescent 

 apieally in cj , in 9 (together with the first) entirely pale red ; 9 with the 

 seventh apieally white and the terebra shorter than half the abdomen. 

 Legs of 9 entirely red ; ^ with the co.xae, trochanters, hind tarsi, apices of 

 their tibiae, and sometimes also of their femora, black ; third and fourth 

 joints of the 6 hind tarsi white. \Vings of S somewhat ample, hardly 

 clouded ; of ? abbreviated and reaching only to the centre of the petiole ; 

 radix testaceous, tegulae black ; areolet of ,$ sub-quadrangular, of 9 want- 

 ing. Length, 9 mm. 



The ^ is very similar to P. digiia/us, but the immaculate frons and 

 mouth, and more slender femora, render it distinct. The female would 

 appear allied to Forster's genus Cnla/y/iis, though Schmiedeknecht, whose 

 female may have been distinct from Thomson's, since he does not describe 

 it, says in 1890 that this species is referable to a new genus of Tryplwnhtac 

 and siiould not be included in the Cryptinae at all. 



Kriechbaumer considered C. grisescens worthy of generic rank (I'Lnt. 

 Nachr. xix., p. 120), to which he accordingly raised it, under the name 

 Pseudocryptus, though his female appears to differ from Thomson's /'. 

 scnnsor, here described. 



Stephens .says he found the male rarely near London, in June; and 

 Capron took the same sex in Surrey. On the Continent it is apparently 



