Spilocryplus.] BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 279 



very slightly convergciil above ; iicrvellus intercepted in, or nearly in, the 

 centre. Length, 4-8 mm. 



9 . Head triangular, rugosely punctate ; clypeus elevated, sub-glabrous ; 

 palpi and apex of mandibles rufescent. Antennae basally fulvescent, four 

 central joints white ; post-annellus slightly longer than the following. 

 Thorax immaculate, black ; mcsonotum somewhat coarsely punctate. 

 Scutellum red. AI)d()men fmely alutaceous, punctate and pubescent ; 

 red, with segments four to six, except their apical margin, black ; seventh 

 broadly white ; post-petiole explanate with prominent s[)iracles ; terebra as 

 long as basal segment. Legs, including coxae, pale red ; hind femora 

 apically infuscate and their tibiae basally whitish. Wings rudimentary, 

 not reaching beyond metathorax ; radix, tegulae and nervures fiavescent. 

 Length, 5-7 nun. 



The variety Hopei differs in its darker palpi, immaculate mandibles, 

 entirely rufo-testaceous thorax, broader antennal white band, and some- 

 times centrally infuscate segments.^ The male, as will 

 be seen, is very variable, and Tschek goes so far as to 

 describe the face, pronotum, and anterior coxae, white ; 

 the variety ischioleuciis has the mouth, the whole face 

 and cheeks, the pronotum, and two metathoracic spots 

 white, the post-petiole entirely red, the anterior coxae 

 and trochanters and the hind trochanters beneath, as 

 well as the base of all the tibiae, white, with the wings 

 less distinctly clouded. C.pygokucus has the pronotum 

 Hopci (after Curtis), white, the post-petiole glabrous and the second segment 

 transversely sub-aciculate. The hind femora may be 

 entirely, or red with only the apices, black. 



No doubt can now remain that C. pygoleiuus is the male of/', abbre- 

 viaior, since Thomson took them tti cop., and Bridgman tells us that 

 W. H. B. Fletcher bred this male from the same cocoon as P. Hopei (cf. 

 Trans. Ent. Soc. 1884, p. 423), though he was not — solely on account of 

 its greater rarity — of opinion that P. abbnviator was synonymous with the 

 latter. This relationship had been anticipated by Marshall (E.M.M. ix. 

 p. 119), who took C. pygoleucus and P. Hopei "in very close juxtaposition," 

 which argued affinity ; he adds that both sexes are not uncommon in the 

 neighbourhood of St. Albans, and (lib. cit. viii. p. 162) records a macrop- 

 terous form of abbnviator, 9, from Corsica. In Opusc. Ichn. 511, how- 

 ever, Schmiedeknecht persists in separating abbreviator on the strength of 

 the thoracic colour, adding " Sonst in Farbung und Sculptur der vorigen 

 Art ( Pygoleucus-Hopei ) ahnlich." 



This species is common on the Continent on umbelliferous flowers in 

 July. Hope sent the types of Hopei to Gravenhorst from Netley, together 

 with a variety of the male having the front coxae beneath, and base and 

 apex of the first segment, white. Bridgman records the male from 

 Norwich in October and common throughout Norfolk, Jlopei as also 

 common in the same county, where it was twice taken by Curti.s, and once 

 by Bridgman at the end of October, and bred from Eupaecilia a>nbii:[i/(ina, 

 Psyche viciella and /"*. interinediella, while of abbreviator he found but a 



1 I can. however, find no stniclural difference upon whicli to found a distinct species, as authors 

 have for so long been in ilie liabit of doin^. Schniicdckneclit still (1904) cunsi>lers it the typical 

 female of 5. pygoleucus, Grav., and gives abbreviator as distinct, with " J unbekanut." 



