204 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 



This species appears to be unknown on the Continent, but its systematic 

 position, in the absence of the true $ , is largely a matter of conjecture, 

 and that now assigned to it must be but tentative. 



" Found near London and in Scotland, in June " (Stephens). Fred. 

 Smith named a specimen in Leonard Jenyns' collection, now in the Cam- 

 bridge JMuseum, as appertaining to this species ; it was taken " by the 

 riverside, Wisbeach, 1831." 



23. castanopygus, Steph. 



Ichneumon caslanopyga, Ste. 111. M. vii. 197, i ?. Amhlyteles castanopygus, Bridg.- 

 Fitch, Entom. 1S81, p. 81 ; Berth. Ann. Soc. Fr. 1895, P- 607 ; Mori. E.M.M. 1902, 

 p. 121, ,5 ? . A. ruhriventris, Wesm. Bui. Ac. Brux. 1854, p. 116; llolmgr. Ichn. 

 Siiec. ii. 254; Thorns. Ann. Soc. Fr. 18S8, p. 113; O. E. xix. 2094, 6 ?. 



Head posteriorly sub-truncate, and narrowed towards the mouth and 

 behind the eyes ; clypeus separated from, and more sparsely punctate 

 than, the face ; cheeks aciculately punctate ; mandibles slender, apically 

 obtuse, bidentate, lower tooth very small and sub-obsolete ; black, 5 with 

 mouth parts fuscous, $ with palpi, mandibles except their apices, sides of 

 labrum, of clypeus, and the facial orbits, white. Antennae somewhat 

 slender, setaceous, black ; of $ white-banded. Thorax black ; $ with 

 dots or lines before and beneath the radix white ; mesosternum internally 

 distinctly bifoveolate at the apex, at least in ? ; metathorax strongly and 

 closely punctate ; areola of 9 sub-rectangular and longer than broad, of c? 

 horse-shoe shaped; costulae entire; apophyses stronger in $. Scutellum 

 black, strongly punctate. Abdomen black, with the second segment 

 closely punctate, of $ somewhat shining and dark red ; third or fourth to 

 apex sanguineous- or castaneous-red, hardly nitidulous ; post-petiole of 9 

 finely aciculate, of $ sub-rugose throughout, its apex centrally elevated 

 and glabrous ; gastrocaeli small, somewhat deeply impressed and striate 

 with the intervening space evenly punctate ; ventral surface castaneous, 

 segments two to four plicate. Legs somewhat long and slender, black ; 

 anterior femora apically and tibiae laterally, and their tarsi, stramineous ; 

 hind tibiae basally arcuate. Wings hyaline with stigma and nervures 

 black; areolet pentagonal; tegulae white-dotted. Length, 11-14 mm. 



The ? differs, besides its smaller gastrocaeli, etc., from that of C. melano- 

 castanus in the form of its head, the longer and more slender legs and 

 antennae, the bidentate thorax, elongate areola and evenly punctate second 

 segment. 



In describing this species, Stephens says, "Very rare; the female I possess 

 I took at Hertford, in June ; the male I obtained from Scotland." New- 

 man (Brit. Moths, 279) says it preys upon Dasypolia tevipli, remarking 

 that, although the larvae live entirely in darkness and totally concealed, an 

 overwhelming majority are destroyed by the present species and by a small 

 species of Microgasler. Bignell, who has kindly given me an example 

 from North Wales, also bred it in South Devon, from XantJiia cercigo and 

 has captured a female, at Ivybridge, near Plymouth, on ist June, 1893. 

 Further, I have seen a male, taken at Pitlochry, in Perth, by Beaumont, 

 on 9th September, 1892 ; and another, by Mr. S. Lnage, at Morthoe, 

 Devon, in August ; the male has once occurred to me, by sweeping reeds, 

 at the edge of Tuddenham Fen, in Suffolk, at the end of August ; it 

 also occurs in Essex. Holmgren records a single example of both sexes 



