Acanthocrypius.] BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 59 



(J. Head not narrowed behind the eyes, strongly and evenly punctate; 

 black, with the face and clypeus entirely stramineous, more fmely punctate 

 and less shining, the latter truncately rounded and very narrowly infuscate 

 along its apex ; labrum and base of the mandibles also pale ; frons dis- 

 tinctly canaliculate between the large and glabrous scrobes. Antennae 

 shorter than the body, centrally dilated and apically attenuate ; black, 

 with the scape entirely stramineous beneath, and the annellus rufescent 

 throughout. Thorax stout, convex and entirely black with dark pubes- 

 cence ; 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, strongly 

 punctate and slightly less deplanate than in the 9 . Abdomen ovate, 

 shining and somewhat small ; black, with the apical margins of the sixth 

 and seventh segments white ; post-petiole broad, sub-quadrate and a little 

 narrowed basally, strongly and regularly aciculate, with carinae between 

 the spiracles ; second segment and remainder of abdomen exactly as in 9 . 

 Legs as in 9 > ^^''th the anterior trochanters white, their tibiae fulvous and 

 the front femora only externally at the base black. Wings exactly as in 

 the 9 , with the tegulae white and their centre red. Length, 6 mm. 



Taschenberg says that the original ^ agrees better with Phygadeuon 

 affiictor than with the present 9 ; in fact, I am inclined to think Thomson 

 has adopted this suggestion— though no direct indication is given of it in 

 Opusc. Ent.- — since the latter's $ of the present species has the face, tro- 

 chanters and anterior tibiae white, and the basal segment in both sexes is 

 said to be strongly striate. He so meagrely describes it, however, that I 

 have here given a full account of what is indubitably the true male. 



This distinct species is said to be found in northern and central Europe, 

 in the autumn. The only British record I have seen is Bridgman's, from 

 Earlham and Eaton, near Norwich, in September ; Miss Chawner has 

 given me the female from the New Forest, and there is a male, probably 

 from Shere, in Surrey, in Dr. Capron's collection. Laboulbene has re- 

 corded this species as parasitic upon the dipterous Eristalis floreus ; and 

 I received two females from Wainwright, in November, 1905, wliich were 

 " bred from pupae which Dr. Sharp doubtless correctly regarded as the 

 Syrphid, Afyiatropa florea. The pupae were found in very rotten wood, 

 living amongst and buried in what was little better than mud ; so that the 

 problem of when and how the parent ichneumons succeeded in laying 

 their eggs in them would be an interesting one to solve. Found in the 

 New Forest, 1905." The two puparia from which they had emerged were 

 also sent, proving them to be solitary parasites, which gnaw a somewhat 

 irregular hole at or a little before the capital extremity of their hosts' pupae 

 and constructing no cocoon of their own. Unfortunately no males were 

 bred along with these females. 



OBISIPHAGA, ;/.;/. 



Head stout, strongly rounded behind the eyes ; vertex convex and 

 narrow, ocelli not a[)proximating orbits ; face prominent. Antennae 

 stout, shorter than body, with the basal joints a little incrassate apically. 



