248 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. [A/rac/odes. 



second and third segments, except sometimes the apex of the latter, casta- 

 neous ; the former not transverse ; terebra sub-exserted. Legs somewhat 

 slender, fulvescent, with the hind coxae more or less broadly black basally, 

 and the anterior sometimes flavescent ; tarsi apically infuscate, with the 

 onychium almost longer than the calcaria, their claws long, somewhat 

 slender and reaching far beyond the pulvilli ; tibiae shortly and closely 

 setulose. Wings normal, sub-hyaline ; stigma piceous, tegulae dull red, 

 radix pale stramineous ; areolet pentagonal and entire. Length, 4-8 mm. 



The extent of the coloration in the clypeus, antennae, legs and abdomen 

 appears to be extremely variable. Gravenhorst mentions ? varieties with 

 the central segments entirely pale red and almost entirely black. Haliday 

 others with the hind femora and base of the intermediate coxae infuscate, 

 and a V with entirely black abdomen and antennae ; his A. fuinatus has 

 all the coxae, trochanters and the apices of the hind tibiae black, with at 

 most the base of the third segment red — he adds that it is an uncommon 

 form. Holmgren says the hind coxae, femora and apices of their tibiae 

 are sometimes infuscate-piceous, and Brischke that the clypeus is often 

 immaculate. 



I have, after arriving at the supposition that A. fiimatns was no more 

 than a small variety of A. bicolor, examined several specimens of what 

 Bridgman understood as the former, and I find they differ in no respect 

 from the present species, excepting in their rather smaller size and darker 

 coloration. 



This species differs from A. gravidus in its much more slender form, 

 straight basal segment, paler anterior coxae, smaller and complete areolet. 

 It may at once be recognized by its having hairy eyes, the lack of im- 

 pressed lines upon the $ second segment, the closed areolet and the 

 sparsely punctate-pilose posterior ventral segments. 



It is said to occur on house windows, in August and September ; 

 Haliday calls it a common species. From Norwich Bridgman records it 

 in May and July ; Bignell captured it at Bickleigh, and Evans at GuUane 

 near Edinburgh, in June, July and August ; Harwood mentions its occur- 

 rence in Essex. I possess specimens from Shere (Capron) ; flood refuse 

 from Pett in Sussex (Newbery) ; Golspie (Yerbury) ; Greenings (W. 

 Saunders) ; Whiting Bay in the Isle of Arran (Waterston) ; and I have 

 found it in Suffolk in decaying carcases of moles and rabbits, as well as at 

 Lyndhurst in a dead cow's head (cf. Ichn. Brit. i. 291), where it is probably 

 parasitic upon dipterous larvae or hyperparasitic upon such things as 

 Alysia mandi/caior, Panz., though it has never yet been bred. 



3. gilvipes, Holmgr. 



Atractodes gilvipes, Holmgr. Sv. Ak. Handl. 1858, n. 8, p. 112 ; Forst. Verb. Wien. 

 z.-b. Ver. 1876, p. 130; Thorns. O. E. x. 1022, 9. 



Shining, punctulate, black. Head with the palpi infuscate, mandibles 

 testaceous and apically darker. Antennae and thorax immaculate. 

 Abdomen black, with the basal segment straight and the second not 

 transverse. Legs fulvescent, with the hind coxae, base of trochanters and 

 sometimes a line on all the femora nigrescent, tibiae and tarsi often in- 

 fuscate ; tarsal claws elongate and very slender, reaching far beyond the 



