BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 75 



papers of the late Dr. Kriechbaumer (Zeit. fiir Syst. Hym. i. 5, p. 248) 

 deals with a c? variety of this species having the pale frontal orbits, pro- 

 notum, callosities before and beneath the radix entirely wanting, the 

 tegulae and basal segment immaculate and the legs almost entirely black 

 or piceous, with mere remnants of whitish marking on the tibiae. 



No doubt can remain that Stephens' /. bipu?idorius is a c^ of this species, 

 the only discrepancy in his description being that of the tarsi : " posterior 

 fuscous," but one can with equal correctness read it " tips of the joints 

 fuscous " ; moreover he says he expects it to be a variety of /. albolineaius, 

 Gr., the true $ of J/ leucoinelas. Capron, who evidently thought it distinct, 

 records it (Entom. 1879, p. 15) from Shere, in 1878. 



M. lencomelas is by no means an infrequent species in Britain, though 

 Stephens seemed to think it not very abundant. He records it from 

 Devonshire, Darenth Wood and around London, in June ; Bridgman, 

 however, says it is not uncommon, in Norfolk, at Mousehold, I'^arlham, &c., 

 and Bignell bred it, at the end of June, from Nocliia hrunnea, in South 

 Devon. Peachell has also bred it, in the middle of April, from a pupa of 

 Amphydasis betularia, dug at willows, at High Wycombe, in Bucks. ; this 

 pupa had been strongly forced in a greenhouse. Charbonnier finds it not 

 rarely in his garden, at Redland near Bristol, in July and August ; one 

 female, taken in October, stung his hand quite sharply. Bedwell has taken 

 it at Oulton Broad, in Suffolk, at the end of August ; Routledge near 

 Carlisle ; Sladen near Dover ; Fitch at Maiden, in Essex ; Bradley at 

 Birmingham ; Beaumont at Bury St. Edmunds ; Wainwright once or twice 

 at St. Ives, in July ; Hamm near Oxford ; it is recorded from Jersey in 

 Ansted's " Channel Islands," and has also occurred at Ipswich, in October; 

 I have found both sexes in the New Forest, and the male, in a greenhouse, 

 at Ryde, I.W., in the middle of August. It is widely distributed through- 

 out Europe, but does not appear to have been bred on the Continent. 



2. dumeticola, Grav. 



Iclnteumon dtiineluola, Gr. I. E. i. 203 ; Ste. 111. M. vii. 147, i ; Wesm. Nouv. M6m. 

 Ac. Brux. 1844, p. 86 ; Rntz. Ichn. d. Forst. iii. 172 ; Molmgr. Ichn. Suec. i. 169 ; 

 Thorns. Ann. Soc. Fr. 1888, p. 107 ; Berth, lih. cit. 1895, P- 235, 6 9 . Melanich- 

 jieuinon dumeticola. Thorns. O. E. xviii. 1957. Phygadeiton piniperdae, Ratz. Ichn. d. 

 Forst. i. 145 ; ii. 125 ; cf. iii. 173, i ?. 



$ . Head very little narrowed posteriorly ; black, with apex of palpi, a 

 lateral mark on clypeus, and sometimes a small dot or line at the frontal 

 orbits, pale. Antennae blackish, white centrally above ; filiform, hardly 

 attenuate towards apex, somewhat slender, eighth joint quadrate. Thorax 

 entirely black ; areola sub-hexagonal, apically emarginate. Scutellum 

 white. Abdomen with greyish pubescence ; black, with the apical margin 

 of the second segment generally red, sixth and seventh wiiite-marked ; 

 post-petiole a little elevated, its central area either somewhat punctate 

 throughout, or, more usually, sub-glabrous with the apical margin quite 

 smooth, the lateral areae closely punctate and the apical angles obtuse ; 

 the second segment is coarsely alutaceo-punctate, the gastrocaeli foveiform, 

 the intervening space being broader than the centre of post-petiole ; terebra 

 shortly exserted. Legs blackish ; front tibiae, rarely also the posterior, 

 more or less white ; hind coxae closely punctate and simple below. Wings 

 sub-hyaline ; stigma and tegulae black ; areolet sub-deltoid. 



