124 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. [Hemifeles. 



a mass of Alicro^asler }:;/omeratiis cocoons beneath a rose leaf; on the 

 following day the female was dead, and in less than three weeks one c? 

 and twenty-nine $ $ H.fiilvif>es emerged from the cocoons. Though the 

 Hemiteks themselves are hy[)erparasitic, they in their turn are destroyed 

 by two species of Chalcids, Entedon viiii//ae and Pieromaliis Boiicheanus 

 to such an extent that Tischbein observed that although all the Micro- 

 gasters of a brood were destroyed, all the Hemiteles exce[)t only one 

 shared the same fate at the hands of the Chalcids. 



This species is a common parasite in Microgasterid cocoons and one of 

 the most abundant species of the genus in the palaearctic zone. Graven- 

 horst took the male on Riibus flowers in October, and Nees the female 

 among fallen leaves in the autumn ; Taschenberg records it as bred from 

 Alicrogaster pupae ex Lasiocampa pi?ii and from spiders' nests. It is said 

 to be common in Norfolk and bred from cocoons of Apanteles congesius 

 and from Cymatophora or, by W. Fletcher (Bridgman), bred early in April 

 from the pupa-case of Fa/iessa atalanta in Devon, and found at Bickleigh 

 on 1 6th September (Bignell), Adkin has bred it from a spider's nest at 

 Leigh in Essex {E.M.M. 1890, p. 249) and Wainwright through Apanteles 

 sp. from a Noctuid larva. Armagh (Johnson, Irish Nat. 1904, p. 256); 

 Maldon in Essex (Fitch). It has been bred from Zygaena filipendi//ae, 

 Plusia chrysids, Pieris rapae, through Apanteles zygaenarum — see also 

 Bignell's Devon Braconids, p. 15 — from Melitaea artemis and through 

 Apanteles sp. from Arctia villica (Buckler). On Clostera anastomosis and, 

 through a Micmgaster, on Liparis dispar (Giraud). Marshall bred it from 

 Apanteles glomeratiis w^on Pieris hrassicae (Bracon. d'Europ. i. 422), and 

 says that every one of the parasites' cocoons yielded a single female of the 

 hyperparasite, which has been reared from spiders' eggs (Ent. Ann. 1874, 

 p. 124). It has also been recorded as hyperparasitic upon Hadena oleracea 

 through Apanteles spurius (Bridg.-Fitch) ; Bonibyces through A. ordinarii/s, 

 Ratz. (Marsh, i. 412); Vanessa nriicae, Selandria pusilla, Diloba caeruleo- 

 cephala, Plusia ga/nma, Zygaena trifolii and Euchelia jacobeae (Brischke). 

 Chitty has taken it at Doddington in Kent, Dr. Cassal upon lilac at Ashby 

 near Doncaster, in May, and Bignell at Yelverton, in August ; there are 

 several in Capron's collection, probably from Shere, and I have captured 

 it, always on house-windows, at Southwold late in September, and in 

 Ipswich in the middle of April. 



4. marginatus, Bridg. 



Hemiteles marginatus, Bridg. Trans. Ent. Soc. 1883, p. 144 ; Schm. Term. Fiiz. 

 1897, p. 518, 6 ?. 



Head sub-buccate, nitidulous, finely punctate and hardly contracted 

 posteriorly. Antennae filiform, as long as the body, with the scape 

 stramineous beneath ; of $ distinctly pilose, hardly incrassate apically, 

 with the two basal flagellar joints sub-equal and thrice longer than broad. 

 Thorax rather longer than high ; mesonotum dull, finely and densely 

 punctate, scabriculous between the obsolete notauli ; metathorax nitidu- 

 lous, areola strongly elongate with the transverse costae distinct, costulae 

 obsolete, lateral areae longitudinally striate ; petiolar area very narrow, 

 discreted and nearly vertical. Scutellum shining and very sparsely punc- 

 tate. Abdomen with all the segments, except the first, narrowly stramineous 

 apically, of $ elongate-ovate and nitidulous, of S sub-cylindrical and 



