48 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. [Microcryptus. 



stitutes Microcryptus lacteator of Thomson and differs from that of 

 M. erythrinus only in its buccate cheeks, closely punctate frons, black 

 antennae, of which joints three to four are red and eight to twelve white, 

 in its entirely red basal segment, feebly canaliculate post-petiole, infuscate 

 front coxae and trochanters and apices of hind femora, and in the radial 

 nervure, which is longer apically than basally. 



This female certainly requires confirmation before it be admitted into 

 the British fauna, although Bridgman records '■'■ Pliygadeuoii lacleator^'^ 

 without indicating the sex, from Earlham and Brundall in July and 

 August, as also has Bignell from Bickleigh in the middle of June ; it is 

 also doubtfully recorded from Battle, in Sussex, in the Hastings List.] 



This is not an uncommon species on the Continent, though it has been 

 but rarely recorded from Britain. Stephens says the female used to be 

 uncommon about London in June; in Norfolk, Bridgman took it at 

 Norwich and Horning P'erry, and Thouless in Foxley Wood ; Bignell has 

 captured it at Bickleigh, in Devonshire, early in September ; and I have 

 specimens from both Dr. Capron, of females from Shere, and Beaumont, 

 of males from Blackheath, Harting and Woking in the middle of June and 

 of July. The latter sex seems much the commoner; I have taken it at 

 Barton Mills, in June, and Wilson Saunders at Copthorne Common, in 

 Surrey, in August. Chitty has taken a female in Yorkshire, in September. 



23, sperator, Milll. 



Ichiieiivion sperator, Miill. Prodr. 157, i. Phygadctton sperator, Gr. I. E. ii. 683 ; 

 Ste. 111. M vii. 299; Tasch. Zeits. Ges. Nat. 1865, p. 50, (J . JMicrocryptus sperator. 

 Thorns. O. E. ix. 861, J ? . (?) Pliygadeiion fumator, var. 4, Gr. I. E. ii. 691, i. 



Head black, epistoma hardly convex ; frons shining and sub-glabrous, 

 its orbits immaculate ; ^ clypeus discreted, apically truncate and its 

 mandibles, palpi and facial orbits, white. Antennae of $ sub-setaceous, 

 nearly as long as the body, with the scape apically or entirely white 

 beneath ; of $ tricoloured, with the fifth joint sub-transverse. Thorax 

 immaculate ; metathorax somewhat shining, $ areola hexagonal and 

 apophyses sub-obsolete ; petiolar area usually discreted and not reaching 

 beyond the centre ; metapleurae sub-obliquely transcostate ; spiracles small 

 and circular ; mesopleurae coriaceous, their sulci elongate, nearly entire 

 and inflexed. Scutellum black. Abdomen red, with the second seg- 

 ment very finely alutaceous and in $ transverse ; of $ parallel-sided and 

 narrower than thorax ; segments five to seven, and the whole or basal half 

 of the first, black, with the central ones of the $ sometimes dorsally infus- 

 cate ; seventh and sometimes also in $ the sixth white-margined ; petiole 

 of $ elongate, with weak carinae, spiracles prominent, and the puncturation 

 close and somewhat irregular ; terebra elongate and reflexed. Legs, in- 

 cluding the ? coxae and tarsi, red ; of c^ somewhat slender, with the 

 coxae and trochanters badious, the hind tarsi, apices of their tibiae and 

 most of their femora, black, and their calcaria white. Wings sub-hyaline ; 

 radix, and the $ tegulae, white. Length, 5-8 mm. 



In most of the $ $ \ have examined the pronotum is anteriorly white 

 in the centre. 



This species is similar to M. arridens and M. erythrinus, but will easily 

 be distinguished by the sub-transverse fifth antennal joint of the 9 > i^^s 



