MicrocryptusA BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 53 



widciicJ IVoiu l)asu to apex. Legs red yellow, apex ul liintl leiuuia and 

 tibiae very feebly infuscate. Length, 5 mm. 



My tentative association of these sexes is, I believe, no more arbitrary 

 than many of Professor Thomson's ; and, working jiiirely upon circum- 

 stantial evidence and the similarity of structure, the choice of ? lies 

 between Aplesis vesfii^inlis and A. graviceps, of which the latter is at 

 present unrecognized on the Continent. 



Pliygadeuon labnilis was introduced as British by Marshall in 1870, but 

 I can find no specific records in current literature, (iravenhorst took it 

 in June, and Schmiedeknecht indicates a wide distribution in Europe, 

 though he has altogether omitted that of A. vestigialis, which was first 

 found in Britain by Cham[)ion, w'no bred it from Coleophora solitarielia, 

 together with a small $ Limneria, upon which it was perhaps parasitic {cf. 

 Entom. 1 88 1, p. 139). Bridgman remarks, concerning this specimen 

 (Trans. Ent. Soc. 1881, p. 155), that it bore no trace of red at the inner 

 orbits, the lines on the metathorax were scarcely perceptible, and that the 

 antennae had the five basal joints entirely, with the two following partly, 

 castaneous, the eighth to eleventh white above but not below. 



I have only seen four British specimens, all males, captured by Char- 

 bonnier, at Lynmouth, in July ; by Piffard, at Felden in Herts. ; and by 

 myself by sweeping a hedge-bottom at Lakeheath, in June, and upon the 

 flower of Ange/ica sylvestris at Lackford Bridge, in Suffolk, towards the 

 end of August. These specimens vary in size from 5I to 7 mm. ; the 

 antennae are not or hardly as long as the body, the hind femora are 

 sometimes pale, the basal segment is determinately canaliculate centrally 

 throughout and laterally margined, but with the carinae obsolete. The 

 labrum is always pale and the face immaculate, though the clypeus, man- 

 dibles, palpi and anterior co.xae are variable in colour. The thorax and 

 oblong-clavate abdomen are strongly pubescent, with the somewhat dull 

 second segment centrally or basally fasciated or spotted with black. 



ACANTHOCRYPTUS, Thomson. 



Thorns. O. E. ix. (1S83), 867 ; Rhenihobius, Forst. Verh. pr. Rlicinl. 1S68, p. 1S4 cl 

 Phyzclus, Furst. lib. cit. p. 185. 



Face of $ more or less, and the not centrally compressed llagelluni 

 of 9 banded with, white. Thorax sometimes red ; mesonotum strongly 

 punctate ; metathorax with large and stout apophyses ; the very broad 

 and elongate [)etiolar area also sometimes laterally dentate ; costulae 

 distinct, at least basally ; basal area transverse, strongly convergent apically 

 and not parallel-sided ; spiracles small and circular. Scutellum depkmate, 

 with the basal foveae usually multicostate transversely. Abdomen nearly 

 always centrally red, very strongly nilidulous, with the first and often base 

 of the .second segment aciculate ; basal segment laterally bordered through- 

 out ; terebra not elongate, its valvulae often centrally ex|)lanate. Upper 

 wings with the radial nervurc emitted from centre of the stigma, and a 

 little longer apically than basally ; discoidal cell rectangular below, with 

 fenestrae confluent. 



This is certainly a natural genus, the species of Phyzclus being too 

 closely allied in their strong dentiparal spines, deeply punctate mesothorax, 



