Aritranis.] BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 295 



less of the metathomx apically red ; pronotum broadly and a callosity 

 beneath the radix, white ; mesonotum confluently and distinctly punctate, 

 with notauli deep, elongate and terminating in a discal depression ; meta- 

 thorax pubescent with no apophyses and two transverse costae ; basal 

 area elongate and entire, coxal distinct. Scutellum white and su[)erficially 

 punctate. Abdomen elongate-fusiform, black, of 6 sub-linear and some- 

 times centrally badious, evenly and closely punctate, with white pubescence ; 

 basal segment gradually a little explanate apically, centrally coarsely 

 punctate, with not very distinct spiracles ; post-petiole distinctly margined 

 and centrally sub-impressed ; second and, in $ , third segments trans- 

 versely impressed at their apical third ; the seventh entirely and the eighth 

 dorsally white, as well as the margins of all the ventral segments during 

 life ; terebra nearly half length of abdomen, valvulae very broad, pilose 

 and black, spicula piceous. Legs slender, entirely piceous or nigrescent, 

 with only the distinctly though not strongly inflated front tibiae, with the 

 apices of their femora, ochraceous ; $ hind tarsi white-banded. Wings 

 normal, slightly clouded apically ; stigma and nervures piceous ; tegulae 

 of S, and sometimes ?, white; areolet sub-parallel-sided, with the 

 external abscissa of the radius rising from its apex ; nervellus post-furcal, 

 intercepted in its centre. Length, 8-9 mm. 



The single type of C. riifoniger in the British Museum is nothing but 

 a small and somewhat immature female of this species with the terebra 

 broken, the metathorax somewhat infuscate, and the bases of the antennae 

 and abdomen unusually pale. Desvignes' description is inadequate, as 

 may be gathered from the fact that Thomson thought (O. E. 2371) that it 

 might be synonymous with his Hoplocryptus mesoxanthiis, an inference set 

 up without hesitation by Woldstedt in the Melanges biologiques, 1877, 

 p. 24. 



Curtis calls this " the Odynerus Ichneumon," because he bred two 

 females from bramble stalks at the end of June, 1837, from which there 

 subsequently emerged several Odynerus laevipes. He says, " the Crypti 

 were exceedingly vivacious, not a joint of their antennae and legs, or a 

 segment of their abdomen being at rest, and they resisted the fumes of 

 sulphur under a glass longer than any other insect that has come under 

 my observation " (loc. cit.). Martineau has recently given me a female 

 bred from the same host, in bramble stems at Birmingham, towards the 

 end of June, 1897, and he has caught it at Solihull in July. It has also 

 been bred at Norwich by Bridgman from bramble sticks, collected during 

 the preceding winter ; in Devonshire by Bignell, from the same pabulum, 

 containing the larvae of a small wasp, which he thought was probably 

 Spilometia troglodytes ; and in France by Giraud, from Osmia tridentata. 

 It is recorded from Maldon in Essex by Fitch ; Colchester by Harwood ; 

 and Dale says one specimen of C. riifoniger, Grav. (sic), has been found 

 at Glanvilles Wootton towards the end of September. I possess examples 

 from Felden in Herts., taken by Biffard, and from Bury St. Edmunds by 

 Tuck, in the middle of July ; by Capron from Shere, and have myself 

 beaten the male from white poplar trees at Foxhall near Ipswich, on the 

 loth August, which is the latest authenticated date of appearance. 

 Dufour and Berris bred two females from the larvae of Odynerus rubicola^ 

 during the early days of April, in dried bramble stems. 



