Cubocephalus.] BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 23 



tarsi and apices of tibiae black. Wings normal, hyaline ; radix and tegulae 

 flavescent. Length, 4--6 mm. 



It differs from C. fortipes in its smaller size, nearly smooth frons, 

 narrower vertex, longer antennae and, in the female, longer flagellar joints 

 and narrower pale central band. 



This is a somewhat common species in Britain, though I have never 

 personally met with it. Thornley has found it at Leverton, in Notts., in 

 September.^ Tuck has taken several males at Benacre Broad, on the 

 Suffolk coast, late in August, and a female at Aldeburgh towards the end 

 of September J Piffard has found it at Felden, in Herts., and there is a full 

 series in Capron's collection from Surrey; Wilson bred two examples of 

 this species at York, from Einphytus cinctus, in May, 1S81 ; and Bridgman 

 records it from Earlham, near Norwich. It extends throughout the 

 northern half of Europe. 



MICROCRYPTUS, Thomson. 

 Thorns. O. E. ix. (1SS3), 850. 



Head with cheeks elongate ; clypeus truncate or produced, but not 

 bidendate ; face of S often pale-marked. Antennae of ? always white- 

 banded. Pronotal epomiae nearly wanting ; metathoracic spiracles circu- 

 lar or oval-circular, rarely elongate ; basal area laterally sub-parallel, and 

 not transverse nor strongly convergent posteriorly ; apophyses often acute ; 

 lateral sulci usually half the length of the mesosternum. Scutellum often 

 pale. Abdomen nearly always abruptly red centrally ; $ with basal seg- 

 ment generally entirely or apically red, terebra exserted. Radial nervure 

 not emitted from beyond the centre of the stigma, and not, or hardly, 

 longer from areolet to apex than from stigma to areolet ; lower external 

 angle of the discoidal cell obtuse or rectangular, never acute ; fenestra 

 entire. 



Thomson (/oc. cit.) remarks that, since the species of this genus have 

 almost oval metathoracic spiracles, it appears more convenient to associate 

 with them those Phygadeuonids with elongate spiracles which he had pre- 

 viously (O. E. vi. 599) placed in his genus Plectocryptus, retaining that 

 name solely then for the reception of P. digitatiis, which differs from its 

 original congeners in its black abdomen, broad peristomium, shorter 

 cheeks, and longer and stronger mandibles. Schmiedeknecht, in 1905, 

 however, has seen fit to disregard this revision (Ichn. 0{)usc. 592) and 

 retains this group with elongate spiracles in the former genus, as did 

 Ashmead, in 1900. A new genus appears to be needed to embrace the 

 Plectocryptus group of Microcryptus as here understood. 



The species of this genus will easily be distinguished from those of 

 Phyi^adcuon by their more elongate and slender facies, by the females' 

 white-banded antennae and obsolete costulae, and by the profuse coloration, 

 especially as regards the head, of the males. These latter are of very 

 much more frequent occurrence, at least in Britain, than the females, 

 which probably have more sluggish and retiring habits, and rarely disport 

 themselves upon the sweets of umbelliferous flowers. Some of the males 

 with pale tarsi are liable to be mistaken for those of our genus Cryptus 

 until the metathoracic structure be examined, in fact M. pcrspUiUator stood 



