72 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. [Fhygadeuon. 



nearly always broadly red centrally ; terebra generally only shortly exserted. 

 Legs not slender. Anterior wings ample, rarely abbreviated ; areolet 

 usually externally entire ; radial nervure emitted from before the centre of 

 the stigma, its apical always longer than its basal abscissa ; discoidal cell 

 with the lower external angle more or less distinctly acute ; the fenestrae 

 rarely confluent, generally divided by a corneous dot. 



The group of species now comprised under this name constitutes but a 

 small part of those enumerated in British catalogues, and is much more 

 homogeneous in character, though it is still very difficult to separate them 

 with any degree of accuracy from the larger and more stoutly built of the 

 Hemitelides. The differentiation by means of the complete areolet has 

 lately given place to — or rather been supplemented by — that of the incras- 

 sate antennae, and H. cnissicornis ( subzonatus ) has even been here placed, 

 although its size is small and areolet externally obsolete. In like manner 

 many of the still-included Phygadeuones — 7ianus, variabilis, etc. — which 

 often have that cell incomplete, and such Hemiteles as ridibundus and 

 aestivalis that have the antennae and facies sufficiently stout for inclusion 

 herein, though the areolet be incomplete, might with equal propriety be 

 placed in either genus. 



Kriechbaumer has yet further sub-divided the present genus by placing 

 the Hercynicus-group of species into a new one ( Ischnocryptus, Ent. Nachr. 

 1892, p. 351), but the various kinds differ so widely inter se that it appears 

 invidious to adopt this genus, as has already been done by Schm., without 

 also splitting up several other sections into distinct genera. I am not of 

 Marshall's opinion that affinity is evidenced by parasites in the election of 

 allied hosts, unless specialized characters be also shown ; if indeed this 

 were the case, the present genus would be in need of wide sub-division, 

 for we have records of its species' parasitism upon Coleoptera, Diptera, 

 Hyinenoptera and Lepidoptera. 



The difficulty of identification has caused a comparative dearth of 

 British records in this section, and I have had to draw somewhat largely 

 from the specimens in my own collection in order to present some idea of 

 their wide distribution in our Islands — records which extend to the four 

 kingdoms, as well as to the Isles of Wight, Man and the Hebrides. It is 

 undoubted that many British species are not yet included in the following 

 account, and care must, therefore, be exercised in order that unrecorded 

 kinds be not " forced " into the present-known descriptions. 



Table of Species. 



Apex of clypeus smooth and not bidentate. 



Apophyses stout and acute ; abdomen 

 mainly red. 



Petiolar area elongate and oblique ; 



hind femora red i. BITINCTUS, Gmel. 



Petiolar area short and vertical ; hind 



femora apically black 2. RUFULUS, 6^Wi?/. 



Apophyses weak or wanting ; abdo- 

 men at most centrally red. 



Nervellus antefurcal ; $ macropterous. 



Areola transverse ; vertex not emar- 



ginate ; face white 3. NYCTHEMERUS, 6^rc?z'. 



(7). 8. Areola not transverse ; vertex emar- 

 ginate ; face immaculate. 



