Fezomachus.] BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 223 



Antennae rather more than three-fourths of the length of the body, 

 pubescent ; sca[)e hardly as long as wide ; three basal flagellar joints sub- 

 ecjual and three times as long as wide. Thorax one-third longer than high, 

 opaque, finely reticulate ; mesothorax trilobed, the lines reaching to the 

 middle of the disc ; scutellum convex, rather higher than the mesothorax, 

 keels just reaching the base ; metathorax long, areae bounded by very 

 fine lines ; areola hexagonal, longer than wide, not, or rarely, closed 

 above ; lateral areae divided, the postero-medial not defined. Abdomen 

 elongate, cylindrical, not wider than thorax and as long as head and 

 thorax ; first segment opaque, finely reticulate, the rest smooth and densely 

 pubescent ; first segment of normal length, its apex two or three times as 

 wide as the base, spiracles projecting and jjlaced in the middle, a shallow 

 median furrow and faint keels which do not reach the apex ; second rather 

 longer than wide ; third sub-quadrate ; the rest transverse, the third and 

 fourth widest. Legs slender. Wings with pentagonal areolet, longer than 

 wide, but the outer nervure sometimes obsolete ; external inferior angle 

 of discoidal cell opposite the corresponding angle of areolet, or a little 

 beyond ; stigma twice as long as wide ; radial cell short and deep ; trans- 

 verse discoidal divided nearly one-third from the bottom ; nervellus nearly 

 straight, interrupted below the middle, emitting nervure sub-obsolete. 



Black ; legs red ; mouth and under side of scape sometimes piccous- 

 red. Coxae : front, entirely red or with base black ; middle, red or marked 

 with black ; hind, entirely black or with the apex red. All the trochanters 

 more or less marked with brown. Femora : middle, with a fuscous stain 

 above at the apex ; hind, with a more or less distinct fuscous line above. 

 Tibiae : hind, with the apical half more or less fuscous above, less so 

 beneath, and sometimes with a fuscous mark above before the base. 

 Tarsi : middle and hind, sometimes apex of front, fuscous. Wings with 

 base and tegulae pale ; stigma fuscous ; nervures of front wings fuscous, 

 of hind ones pale. Length, 5 mm. 



The 9 differs from P. fa/lax, Forst., in the shorter antennae and 

 terebra, narrow apex of post-petiole, and in the colour of the antennae. 

 From all the black species I have seen the present may be known by its 

 entire and very deeply impressed notauli, and short, vertical and strongly 

 costate petiolar area. In size it resembles P. instabilis, from which its 

 close abdominal puncturation and stouter antennae will distinguish it, 

 rather than P. intermedius, which has no or obsolete notauli. 



I have tentatively ventured to synonymize Bridgman's $ with the 

 present species, solely on account of the similarity of colour and pubes- 

 cence ; he himself says (Ipc. cit.) that it is undoubtedly the $ of some 

 black Pezomachus. 



//. piceus was swept at Mousehold Heath, near Norwich, early in 

 August, 1882. 



This distinct female is certainly somewhat rare in Britain. Captured at 

 Shaugh bridge in the middle of August (Bignell) ; a doubtful example 

 found in (Guernsey (Luff) ; occurs in Essex (Vict. Hist.) ; taken at Hayton, 

 near Calisle, in the middle of Ajiril (Routledge). 1 swept a specimen 

 from rough herbage in the lientley Woods, near Ipswich, early in 

 November, 1895 ; and possess another bred from some microlepidojnerous 

 host by Dr. Chapman at Locarno, in Ai)ril, lyoo; Piffard has taken it at 

 Felden in Herts. ; and I once found it on Soulhwold Cliffs in late July. 



