272 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. [Spilocryp/ns. 



only slightly shorter than half the abdomen. The colour of the scutelluni 

 will at once distinguish the male from Tschek's s[)ccies. 



A. batavus is given by van VoUcnhoven (IMnac. p. viii. Syst. I.ij.), with- 

 out hesitation, as synonymous with this species ; it is a brachypterous 

 variety with the first segment, hind tarsi and their tibiae, excepting the 

 white base, unicolorous red. The Rev. E. N. Bloomfield first found it in 

 Britain, as recorded by Bridgman (Trans. Ent. Soc. 188 1, p. 154), in a 

 sandpit in GuesUing Wood, near Hastings, in September ; and Hamm, 

 Elliott tells me, has taken it at St. Helens in the middle of July. My own 

 experience is that this form is much commoner than the macropterous 

 one, since I have found it in September, running in sandpits and at the 

 roots of reeds by the river Gipping at Ipswich, where I once bred it in 

 May from an unknown host ; and Piffard has several times taken it at 

 Felden in Herts. If further proof of the association of the brachypterous 

 form with S. incubiior were needed, it is abundantly su[)plied by Bowdler, 

 who has sent me about a dozen of both forms captured together during 

 September, 1898 ; they were both running over low plants in a lane at 

 Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire in some numbers. 



Stephens found S. incubitor near London in June ; Bridgman at 

 Norwich, and he adds that it has been bred from Saturnia carpini ; I 

 have seen a specimen bred from the same host by Bradley at Barmouth. 

 It would also appear to prey upon Euchelia jacobaeae. Psyche vidella, P. aim, 

 Trichiosoma luconim, Cimbex variabilis and Hylotoma rosarian (cf. Entom. 

 1883, p. 36), but it is almost certain that in the case of the Tenthredinid 

 hosts, the next species should have been cited. Thornley has taken the 

 macropterous female at Linwood Warren in North Lines., and I once 

 found it on the flowers of wild carrot at Peasenhall, in Suffolk, towards the 

 end of July. 



2. cimbicis, Tschek. 



Cryptus incubitor, Ratz. Ichn. d. Forst. i. 142 ; ii. 123, i ; Tasch. Zeits. Ges. Nat. 

 1865, p. 104, excl. 9. C. c7'w/'/V/j-, Tschek, Verb. z.-b. Ges. 1870, p. 412, 6 9 ; cf. lib. 

 cit. 1872, p. 250. Spilocryptiis iiiciibitor. Thorns. O. E. v. 502 et xxi. 2366 (part). 



Shining and punctate. Head black, narrowed and rounded posteriorly ; 

 cheeks and temples sub-buccate ; epistoma prominent ; clypeus deplanale, 

 laterally depressed and apically slightly impressed transversely in the 

 centre ; frons flat, with a slight central sulcus ; of 9 with facial orbits 

 sometimes pale ; of $ with mouth, part of mandibles, orbits and a 

 central facial mark white. Antennae of ? centrally white, not attenuate 

 apically, with first and second flagellar joints of equal length ; of ^ with 

 scape white beneath. Thorax black, of i with pronotum and a line 

 below the radix white ; meso- and meta-notum of equal height, the latter 

 uniformly convex with the lateral areae complete and densely rugulose, 

 with the basal costa sub-obsolete and curved, the apical wanting, and the 

 petiolar area small, emitting the apophyses, which are wanting in the c? , 

 below its vertex. Scutellum flat, distinctly narrowed apically, diffusely 

 punctate and black in both sexes. Abdomen of $ oblong-ovate, of $ 

 linear-fusiform ; centrally red, anus white ; basal segment narrow and 

 very finely punctulate, of ? slightly curved to the small spiracles, with the 

 post-petiole red and often black-marked, as long as broad, with no carinae 

 nor sulci, with the apical angles acute and the margin emarginate, of S 

 narrow, red and very slightly explanate, with spiracles somewhat prominent 



