48 



BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 



rarely one to four, badious or castaneous, darker with only incisures casta- 

 neous in (?; $ with sixth at apex and seventh flavidous-white ; post-petiole 

 scabriculous throughout, carinae often obsolete, apical angles obtusely 

 rounded ; second segment slightly longer than broad, very closely and 

 alutaceously punctate, space between the large, broad but superficial 

 gastrocaeli narrower than centre of post-petiole ; terebra slender, distinctly 

 exserted. Legs slender, pale red, anterior coxae sometimes stramineous ; 

 hind legs often blackish, their coxae very finely punctate with, in $ , distinct 

 red scopulae. Wings hyaline, stigma fulvous ; areolet narrowed above ; 

 radix and tegulae rosy in ? , somewhat flavidous in S • Length, 8-11 mm. 



This species varies only in the directions above noted. It is at once 

 distinguished by the pale $ anus and the banded antennae of the ^ ; the 

 mesonotum is dull, scabrously punctate. Ichneumon rubedinis, Desv., is 

 not a variety of this species as was conjectured by M. I'Abbe Berthoumieu. 



Undoubtedly a common species in Britain, though I have never person- 

 ally met with it, and it appears to be very scarce in Devon, where Parfitt 

 found only one female. Hope found both sexes near Netley ; and Stephens 

 tells us the larvae feed on those oi Abraxas grossu/ariata, and that it is not 

 uncommon about London and in Salop, in June ; Bignell and Bridgman 

 record it respectively at Bickleigh, in Devon, at the end of August, and 

 at Norwich ; Beaumont has found it at Courten, in Ireland, and Taynuilt, 

 in Perthshire ; and Bennett, at Guestling. I am indebted to Mr. Piffard 

 for many examples from Felden, in Herts., to Mr. Adams, who took it at 

 Lyndhurst towards the end of May, and to Mr. Peachell, who bred the 

 female from the pupa of an Ennomid moth, the larva of which was beaten 

 at Totteridge, near High Wycombe, on September loth. This last, in 

 emerging from its host's chrysaUs, had entirely removed the capital ex- 

 tremity by a somewhat regular circular incision, the inner margin of which 

 was much discolured. On the Continent, it is very common in grassy 

 places and among the undergrowth in woods. 



8. pictus, Grav. 



Hoplisineniis pictus, Gr. I. E. ii. 418, excl. i. Ichneumon pictus, Wesm. Nouv. 

 M(^m. Ac. Brux. 1844, p. 220, 9 ; Bui. Ac. Brux. 1848, p. 172 ; lib. cit. 1849, p. 38, i ; 

 Holmgr Ichn. Suec. i. 199; Berth. Ann. Soc. Fr. 1895, p. 567, cJ 9; cf. Thorns, lib. 

 cit. 1887, p. 16. /. rufescens, Ste. 111. M. vii. 207, ^ . /. exornatus, Wesm. Nouv. 

 M6m. Ac. Brux. 1844, p. 80, 9 ; Bui. Ac. Brux. 1855, p. 394, i '^ % cf. M6m. couron. 

 Ac. Belg. 1859, p. 86. C^-yptiis Ratzeburgii, Hart. Jahresb. 1838, p. 263 ; Ratz. Ichn. 

 d. Forst. i. 139, 9. Stenichneuinon pictus. Thorns. O. E. xviii. 1967, ? . 



A small, slender, reddish species of Cryptoid aspect. Head short, 

 narrowed behind the eyes, triangular in front ; black with palpi, labrum 

 and orbits whitish ; $ also has vertical lunulae and genal orbits pale ; 

 clypeus and face red, laterally in S flavous. Antennae slender, attenuate ; 

 white-banded with scape red beneath in $ ; reddish, with scape black, 

 beneath in $ . Thorax of ? mostly red ; pronotum and usual callosities 

 at radix flavous ; mesonotum somewhat dull with lateral black vittae ; 

 metathorax black, pleural areae often red- or sometimes even white-marked; 

 areola sub-quadrate, costulae wanting, spiracular costae strongly curved, 

 dentiparal mutic. Scutellum and post-scutellum red, apically white and 

 somewhat truncate. Abdomen sub-linear, very finely and superficially 

 punctate ; red with the base and apex more or less infuscate, darker in $ ; 



