BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 5I 



Head gently rounded behind the eyes, black, palpi red ; ^ with man- 

 dibles, labrum, transverse line on clypeus, facial orbits and vertical dots, 

 white. Antennae slender, setaceous, black ; of ? white -banded, of ^ 

 with white dot beneath scape. Thorax black with humeral callosities 

 white ; areola semi-oval ; metathoracic spiracles short ; dentiparal costae 

 mutic. Scutellum strongly convex, black. Abdomen elongate, sub- 

 obtuse, black ; segments two to three and apex of first for the most part 

 red ; anus immaculate ; post-petiole very finely scabrous or shagreened, 

 slightly convex, with no carinae and the spiracles inconspicuous ; gastro- 

 caeli superficial and sub-obsolete. Legs slender, coxae and trochanters 

 black ; femora and tibiae obscurely red, front ones internally whitish ; 

 hind tibiae apically black. Stigma red, of ^ piceous ; tegulae and radix 

 fuscous in ? ; areolet narrowed above. Length, 10 mm. 



Gravenhorst placed this species in iYiO. fabricator group (Cratichneumoti), 

 and I am not sure that he was not correct, for it is closely allied thereto 

 by its abbreviated metathoracic spiracles, &c., but diverges in the semi-oval 

 areola, convex scutellum and slender legs ; the pale vertex, shagreened 

 post-petiole, black anus and slender legs and antennae, however, render its 

 present position at least temporarily tenable. Wesmael did not know to 

 which of his own divisions it most nearly approached. 



The black scutellum and non-aciculate petiole will distinguish it from 

 all the other species of the present genus. The abdomen is so obtuse 

 apically as to resemble that of Ambly teles oratorius, Fab. 



Stephens says it was found uncommonly, at Coombe Wood, in June ; 

 but further proof is certainly needed before it should finally be included in 

 our list, since it is not found in northern France or Sweden, and seems 

 to range only from Belgium, through Germany to Piedmont. It would 

 appear to be but little known, even on the Continent. 



CRATICHNEUMON, Thomson} 

 Thorns. O. E. xviii. (1893) 1945. 



Head not triangular, vertex broad, cheeks buccate and very short ; 

 epistoma separated from the face by parallel impressed lines, facial arch 

 distinct and interrupted by an inter -antennal tubercle ; clypeus sub- 

 discreted, the apex often sub-dentate centrally ; mandibles stout, a little 

 narrowed towards their apices, compresso-dentate, the lower tooth some- 

 what remote from the apex \ vertical orbits with a pale dot and the exterior 

 in the $ not uncommonly stramineous or red. Antennae stout, of V niore 

 rarely attenuate apically, of $ nearly the length of the body and internally 

 sub-crenulate. Thorax not convex ; metathoracic areola generally sub- 

 quadrate, spiracles usually small, apophyses obsolete or wanting. Scutellum 

 sub-deplanate. Abdomen somewhat depressed ; post- petiole centrally 

 smooth, sub-rugose, or more rarely sub-aciculate, twice broader than its 

 lateral areae ; second segment with thyridii always transverse, neither 

 oblique nor deeply impressed, occasionally circular ; gastrocaeli generally 



1 Ichnetimon tibiator, Grav. (Mem. Ac. Sc. Torin, 1820, p. 284 ; I. E. i. 151 ; Ste 111. M. vii. 137, g) 

 should probably be referred to this genus — if, indeed, it be an Ichneumon, sensu Wesm., at all— but, 

 although included in all the British catalogues since Stephens recorded it rarely from near London, 

 in June, no author here nor abroad has adequately described it, and, since the Gravenhorstian 

 description is quite useless and it is not included in modern European works, it were certainly better 

 to consign this " species" to the limbo of forgottenness. 



