Microcryptin.\ BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 45 



and shorter than the post-annelUis ; of 9 fih'form and infuscate, with scape 

 ferriigineoLis beneatli, basal flagellar joints red, the sixth infuscate and the 

 five following white above. Thorax immaculate ; metathorax short, 

 coarsely alutaceous, its notum bicostate ; petiolar area broad, excavate, 

 and reaching beyond the centre ; spiracles circular ; ? with the meso- 

 pleurae rugose and costulae wanting. Scutellum of 9 black, of $ generally 

 more or less white. Abdomen smooth, black ; segments two and three, 

 the apex of the first, and in $ the base or whole of the fourth, dark red ; 

 seventli of $ apically while ; post-petiole deplanate, tuberculale and 

 carinate, of $ sub aciculate and nearly parallel-sided, of ? smooth, 

 strongly explanate and transverse ; second segment glabrous, with the 

 spiracles some distance from the lateral margin \ terebra hardly half the 

 length of the abdomen, with the spicula stout and straight. Legs red ; 

 trochanters and coxae black, or in 9 mainly red ; hind tarsi and ai)ices of 

 their tibiae and of their femora, black ; tibiae basally white-banded and, 

 especially the anterior, spinulose. Wings somewhat clouded ; radix and 

 tegulae white, the latter in $ ferrugineous. Length, 5-8 mm. 



The variety varicolor has the scutellum and anus entirely black, the 

 fourth segment with base and sides red, and the tegulae infuscate ; the 

 variety alnloininator cannot be ascribed to this species (from which it 

 differs widely in having the radix and tegulae alone white, with the hind 

 femora entirely and the intermediate beneath black) without considerable 

 doubt, and is but tentatively so treated here. 



This species occurs throughout northern and central Europe ; Taschen- 

 berg says it is a common parasite upon Lophyrus pini} having regard, no 

 doubt, to the hundreds of specimens bred from this host by Prof. Ratze- 

 burg in Germany. The latter also bred it from Z. rufiis, and Brischke 

 adds Z. similis as one of its victims. It is, however, in its turn preyed 

 upon by another Cryptid, He?nileles areaior, Panz. Though this species 

 has stood in the British Catalogue since 1872, I can instance the occur- 

 rence of but a single male, of the variety varicolor, which I took upon the 

 flowers of Mentha hirsi/ta, in Dodnash Woods, near Ipswich, on 20th 

 August, 1896. 



20. sericans, Grav. 



Phygadeuon sericans, dr. I. E. ii. 702; Tasch. Zcits. Ges. Nat. 1S65, p. 47, S . 

 Microcryptus sericans. Thorns. O. E. ix. 864, i 9 . 



Head black, somewhat stout ; cheeks buccate, clypeus discreted and 

 apically truncate, eyes of $ sparsely pubescent. Antennae of ^ rather 

 longer than half the body, with the i)ost annellus longer than scape. 

 Thorax immaculate ; metathorax short, its notum in ^ regularly and com- 

 pletely areated, with the areola sub-quadrate and longitudinally rugose ; 

 petiolar area excavate, reaching beyond the centre and, in $, discreted. 

 Scutellum black. Abdomen sub-sericeous, black, with the second and 

 third segments, the apex of the first centrally, and sometimes the whole of 

 the fourth, dark red ; petiole gradually dilated towards the apex, with 

 distinct carinae ; post-petiole deplanate, rectangular and aciculate, of 9 

 transverse ; second segment sub-longitudinally and feebly rugulose, with 



1 VVestwood (\fo<l. Intr. ii. loo) says ILirtii^ gives fifteen spp. of IchncumoniAae .ts prcyiiiK upon 

 Lophyrus />i>ii, and ip. 90) refurs " Harlit;. Die AdcrfliiKler Dciitchslands, l-;rst. Iian<l. Uiu Faiuilien 

 der Blattwespen und Holzwespcn, Berlin, 1837." This I have not seen.— CM. 



