12 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. {Trichocrypiiis. 



hind cuxuc — like the female referred to by Taschenberg — black, with the 

 basal joint of their trochanters concolorous. 



'I'his species occurs throughout northern and central Europe, and is the 

 Ichiieiiinon Scirpi of Fourcroy, of which Geoffroy wrote in 1764 " reperi 

 hunc Ichneunioneni copiosissime, versus finem aetatis, in culmis Scirpi; 

 forsan ova deponit in corpus cujusdam insecti aquatici " ; but I cannot 

 find that it has ever been bred, and we now know no more of it than to 

 confirm the statement that it appears to occur solely upon aquatic plants, 

 and is usually taken by coleopterists while sweeping in such situations, 

 which would suggest an association with some such insect as Hydrocampa 

 nympheata. By no means rare in marshy places ; found somewhat un- 

 commonly near London, also in Devonshire, the New Forest, etc., in June 

 (Stei)hens) ; Acle, in the Norfolk broads (Bridgman) ; both sexes from 

 Surbiton (/// coll. Marshall) ; Appledore, in Kent, at the end of April 

 (Beaumont) ; Essex (Harwood). I possess specimens taken between the 

 middle of July and the end of September at Oulton Broad, while fishing 

 for water beetles by Bedwell, at Martham Broad on aquatic plants by 

 Janson, at Sutton Coldfield by Willoughby Ellis ; and at Barnby Broad, 

 in Suffolk, I have fished it up from below the surface of the water and 

 taken it upon the flowers of Angelica sylvestris. 



2. aquaticus, Thorns. 



Cryptus ciiiciorius, Gr. I. E. ii. 481 (indiv. max. antennis totis nigris), 9- Tricho- 

 cryptits aqiiaiiciis, Thorns. O. E. vi. 6l\, 6 9 . 



Black, somewhat shining ; metathoracic areola transverse ; legs red ; 

 $ with antennae black and scutellum white ; $ with hind coxae and 

 trochanters black, Length, 8-10 mm. 



So like the preceding as to require no detailed description ; therefrom 

 it may be known by its usually larger size, transverse areola, which is often 

 apically arcuate and always emits the costulae from its centre, the much 

 more strongly elevated centre of the basal segment, and the sub-rugosely 

 punctate metapleurae and sides of the post-petiole ; the fiagellum of the 

 female, moreover, is not basally rufescent. 



Thomson also indicated the black hind coxae as a specific distinction, 

 but, as I have pointed out under T. cinctorius, this cannot be considered 

 constant since the areola of my males is not transverse and the basal 

 segment not elevated centrally, they were, moreover, taken in company 

 with typical females of the first species. 



A single female of this species, which has not previously been recorded 

 from Britain, in my collection, was captured by Mr. W. H. Tuck, m.a., in 

 Finborough Park, in Suffolk, on the 24th September, 1900. Gravenhorst 

 found it at Cudova, in Silesia, on umbels, in August ; and Thomson 

 describes it from Sweden. There is also a female, mixed with T. cinctorius, 

 in the British Museum ; it is, perhaps, not rare in Britain. 



CRATOCRYPTUS, Thomson. 

 Thonis. O. E. v. 521 ; ( : ) Lcplodenias, Forst. Verh. pr. Rheinl. 1 868, p. 182. 



Body black and somewhat large. Head nearly cubical ; cheeks broad, 

 eyes glabrous, mandibular teeth unequal ; clypeus niutic, apically shining 



