58 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. {Acanthocryptus. 



and the valvulae apically ol)tuse. Legs clear red ; coxae and trochanters, 

 hind tarsi and apices of their tibiae and of their femora suddenly, deep 

 black ; $ with the anterior coxae and trochanters more or less white. 

 Wings normal, hardly clouded ; tegulae apically red, radix white. Length, 

 6-8 mm. 



The quadrituberculate metathorax, strongly striate and carinate post- 

 petiole and i pale face will at once distinguish this species, whose $ has 

 the second segment sometimes basally or entirely in the centre strigose 

 and the third segment very rarely punctulate. 



This is by no means an uncommon species in Britain. Stephens says, 

 " This beautiful insect occurs in plenty in the vicinity of London, in June ; 

 it is also found in the New Forest, in Salop, Scotland, etc." Bridgman 

 found it at Brundall, near Norwich, in October ; and it is recorded from 

 Essex. Beaumont took the male at Kilmore, in Ireland, in August ; 

 Marshall at Cornvvorthy, in Devon ; Chitty at Sunbury, in Middlesex, in 

 the middle of June ; and Piffard has given me both sexes from Felden, in 

 Herts I have taken the male upon the flower-tables oi Angelica sylvestris, 

 at Claydon bridge, in Suffolk, at the beginning of September, and the 

 female in Tuddenham Fen, in late August. The latter, however, is more 

 usually found during hibernation, in tufts of grass on the borders of woods, 

 and has occurred to me in such situations in the Bentley Woods, in 

 December, in a ribbon grass C^ Alopecurus pratensis) and at Brede, in 

 Sussex, in the usual tuft grass (Aim caespitosa). It has only once been 

 bred: from Eristalis sp., by Marshall {cf. Ent. Ann. 1874, p. 124); its 

 habits are probably similar to the very closely allied R. fiigrita, Grav. 



5. nigrita, Grav. 



Phygadeuon nigrita, Gr. I. E. ii. 641 ; Tasch. Zeits. Ges. Nat. 1865, p. 23, excl. i. 

 AcautJiocryptits nigrita. Thorns. O. E. ix. 869, i ? . 



$ . Head immaculate, rugosely and deeply punctate, with dark pubes- 

 cence ; frons canaliculate between the large and glabrous scrobes ; epistoma 

 and the discreted clypeus convex ; palpi ferrugineous. Antennae filiform, 

 sub-incrassate, centrally white-banded and apically obtuse, with the third 

 joint often basally red. Thorax entirely black, with dark pubescence ; 

 mesonotum evenly and very strongly punctate ; metathorax sub-rugulose, 

 with complete areae, strong obtuse apophyses and circular spiracles ; 

 areola transverse, hexagonal and apically truncate ; petiolar area evenly 

 rugulose and distinctly discreted. Scutellum black, deplanate, and 

 strongly punctate. Abdomen ovate, shining and as broad as the thorax ; 

 black, with the apical margins of the fifth to seventh segments obsoletely 

 white ; post-petiole broad, sub-quadrate and a little narrowed basally, 

 strongly and regularly aciculate throughout ; second segment strongly 

 aciculate between the large and transverse thyridii, apically (like the 

 remainder of the abdomen) glabrous and nitidulous ; terebra as long as 

 the basal segment, lanceolate and red, with the valvulae infuscate and 

 apically acuminate. Legs black, with the tibiae, anterior tarsi and apices 

 of the front femora, ferrugineous. ^Vings clouded ; radix white, tegulae 

 piceous ; stigma and nervures black ; nervellus opposite and intercepted 

 two-thirds below the centre. Length, 7^-8 mm. 



