66 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. [Gfyphicnenits. 



discrimination. The most constant and reliable distinction is found in the 

 frons, which in both sexes is dull, strongly and sub-rugosely and con- 

 fluently punctate ; the $ palpi are flavescent ; the $ has the ten basal 

 flagellar joints unicolorous red, with no vestige of a pale central band ; the 

 areola is sub-transverse and less than twice broader than long ; and the 

 dentiparal areae are more or less distinctly transcostate. The central 

 carina of the scutellar fovea is usually less conspicuous ; the apical seg- 

 ments of the S are not glaucous-margined, and its valvulae with the apex 

 and not the base broadly red ; the terebra of the ? is rather shorter than 

 the basal segment ; the ? legs are very distinctly stouter, with their coxae 

 usually black and the apical half of the posterior femora clear red ; the ^ 

 has the intermediate tarsi paler and the hind tibiae apically infuscate ; the 

 stigma in both sexes is always piceous and that of the ? never testaceous ; 

 and the size averages rather larger, but is increased by the stouter facies. 



F. qiiadrispinus, van i, Grav., used to be considered the typical S of 

 this species, from which F. profiigator, varr. i et 3, are said by Taschenberg 

 to differ in having the whole of the hind and generally also of the anterior 

 femora black ; it is now, however, considered a good species, under the 

 genus Acatithocryptus, and has not occurred in Britain. F. podagricus is 

 a $ variety with the flagellar joints four to twenty red and the basal ones 

 black above ; it also has all the femora only basally, and the hind tarsi 

 entirely, black. 



It is quite impossible to arrive at a correct solution of the synonymy of 

 this and the preceding species, which have been most hopelessly mingled 

 since Gravenhorst first described F. vagalmndus in 1829, and are now for 

 the first time adequately distinguished. Even Thomson associated the 

 sexes of both species ; and Schmiedeknecht thought to solve the problem 

 easily by synonymizing them in 1905 ; this, however, is obviously im- 

 possible though Bridg.-Fitch did much to add to the confusion in Britain 

 by giving the $ of F. vagabundus both with and without white-banded 

 flagellum. 



Consequently we find a great mass of localities and details under the 

 present species, the majority of which, doubtless, appertains to that last 

 described, and the records must be regarded with due caution. Common 

 in Norfolk ; Laira, in Devon ; Freshney Bogs, in Lines. ; South Leverton, 

 in Notts. ; Rye House and Norbury ; Thorney, near Nottingham ; Sutton, 

 near Birmingham ; Isle of Man ; Shotover, Oxford and Tubney ; Essex ; 

 St. Issey, in Cornwall ; Dover ; Hastings district ; Mosely ; Orton, near 

 Carlisle ; Kirknewton and Lauranston, near Edinburgh. Stephens says 

 the typical form is not uncommon in the vicinity of London ; and that 

 the var. podagricus, which was originally found by Hope, at Netley, in 

 Shropshire, occurs about London in June. My experience goes to show 

 that this species is far rarer than the last-described ; T have taken two 

 females, both in August, at Felden, in tierts., on Herac/emn, and in Fin- 

 borough Park, in Suffolk, on Angelica. I took three others in 1894, 

 about Ipswich, and Rev. E. N. Bloomfield has taken it at Guestling, near 

 Hastings. The males are hardly commoner ; I cai)tured ten on Heracleuvi 

 in the Bramford marshes, near Ipswich, in July, 1899; one or two in the 

 same neighbourhood in 1894; Sladen has found it at Kingsdown, in 

 Kent, in July ; and Chitty at Oxted and Huntingfield, in June. 



