304 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. {^Cryptus. 



hind ones especially in ? nigrescent towards the apex, intermediate of 

 $ also apically infiiscate ; hind tarsi of ^ black, compressed. Wings 

 clouded ; radix and tegulae dark, stigma hlack, nervelet distinct ; nervellus 

 intercepted far below centre. Lengtii, 12-14 'iiT"- 



The variety seticornis has the metathorax more closely and finely punc- 

 tate, with both costae distinct throughout, the abdomen mainly red-brown, 

 the orbits white-marked and the wings less deeply clouded. 



Stephens tells us that it used to be found not uncommonly about 

 London, at Ripley and Hertford, and that' its larvae prey upon those 

 of Fliragmatobia fuligiiwsa and Clisiocampa neitstria ; from both these 

 Bombyces it has been bred in Germany as well as from Diloba caemleo- 

 cepliala, and Ratzeburg raised the var. sdicornis from Trachea piniperJa ; 

 Laboulbene records it from a species of Eumenes in France. Although it 

 occurs throughout Europe, the only recent British record I can find is 

 Harwood's from Essex in the Victoria History of that county. 



2. spiralis, Fonrc. 



Ichneumon spiralis, Fourc. E. P. ii. 407, ? . Crypliis spiralis, Gr. I. E. ii. 454 ; 

 Ste. 111. M. vii. 278, excl. i ; Tasch. Zeits. Ges. Nat. 1865, p. 71, c? ? ; rf. Tschek, 

 Verh. z.-b. Ges. 1872, p. 237, i. C. inconspicinis, Gr. I. E. ii. 447, $. 



Head black ; of $ with epistoma prominent, internal orbits and 

 generally the external very narrowly white ; of $ with mouth, the discreted 

 and apically truncate clypeus, most of the face, the internal and some- 

 times the outer and a dot at the vertical orbits, white. Antennae of $ 

 filiform, with four central joints white, of $ with scape white beneath. 

 Thorax somewhat shining, of $ with white pubescence ; callosity beneath 

 radix usually, and in ^ the pronotum, pale ; metathorax finely rugose, 

 discally longitudinally sub-strigose, with the basal transverse costa centrally 

 obsolete and the apical straight, lateral areae not smoother basally ; 

 apophyses distinct and smaller in $, which has the petiolar area sub- 

 vertical ; spiracles elongate and somewhat broad. Scutellum black ; of $ 

 usually, of ? rarely, white at apex. Abdomen black and not dull ; of $ 

 rather narrower than thorax and oblong-ovate, with the basal segment 

 superficially canaliculate and slightly explanate apically, post-petiole sub- 

 quadrate and twice broader than petiole ; of ^ narrower, with the basal 

 segment sub-linear and centrally glabrous, with normally prominent spiracles ; 

 terebra nearly as long as abdomen. Legs slender and red ; coxae and 

 trochanters black, anterior of $ white-marked ; posterior tarsi, apices of 

 hind tibiae, and in $ of hind femora, infuscate ; hind tarsi of 6 distinctly 

 white centrally. Wings not fasciated ; tegulae of $ white, of $ infuscate, 

 with radix sometimes paler; nervelet distinct. Length, 10-14 •i'"''''- 



The female is said by Taschenberg and Tschek to possess a minute 

 apical scutellar dot ; and the latter tells us (loc. cit.) that all his Austrian 

 males were similarly marked. 



From C. viditatorii/s, the male may be easily distinguished by its much 

 longer petiolar area. 



[At Ent. Nachr. 1891, p. 226, we are told that the $ of Gravenhor.st's 

 C. spiralis (which constitutes C. dentaius, Tasch., and is there instanced 



