BRITISH ICHNEUMONS, 211 



femora, black ; o with front tibiae internally white. Wings hyaline, 

 stigma piceous ; aveolet not narrowed above. Length, lo mm. 



The variety rehellis, considered distinct by Thomson, is larger, with the 

 abdomen broader, its sculpture coarser, and the incisure of the third seg- 

 ment deep ; the declivity of the $ scutellum, moreover, is laterally carinate 

 throughout. 



This species may be known from its congeners by its strongly gibbous 

 scutellum, stout and normal mandibles, and in having the four or five 

 apical segments white-margined. From the common A. cin^ulatorius, 

 with which Holmgren confounded it, and which should certainly occur 

 upon umbelliferous flowers in Britain, it differs in its dull and finely striate 

 post-scutellum and in its broader and somewhat more coarsely punctate 

 abdomen, which also is more plentifully white-marked. 



Stephens says he found this species, which is widely distributed on the 

 Continent, near Hornsey, in April ; the only three indigenous examples I 

 have seen are males of the above variety and were taken in the New 

 Forest, one by j\Ir. R. C. Bradley, in 1894, and the other by myself, on the 

 8th August, running in the bright morning sunshine, about the leaves of a 

 buckthorn bush, at Matley Bog ; this circumstance suggested to me that it 

 might be parasitic upon Gonopieryx rhainni and in the act of searching for 

 the full-fed larvae of that species. The last was also captured by Mr. 

 Bradley, in August, at Barmouth. Mr. Bignell has an example bred in 

 France from Lycaena lolas. 



PROBOLUS, Wesmael 

 Wesm. Noiiv. Mem. Ac. Brux. 1844, p. 150. 



Head somewhat tumidous, a little dilated behind the eyes and towards 

 the mouth ; upper mandibular tooth the longer ; clypeus apically sub- 

 truncate, laterally rounded. Antennae setaceous, apically attenuate. 

 Thorax stout ; metathorax short, sub -truncate, rugulose, with the areae 

 sub-obsolete and spiracles short, ovate. Scutellum somewhat flat, laterally 

 immarginate. Abdomen lanceolate-ovate, apically obtuse ; basal segment 

 rugosely punctate, with a central dorsal cariniform prominence obliterating 

 the carinae ; gastrocaeli sub-obsolete ; ventral fold wanting, or present on 

 the second segment only. Legs normal ; scopulae wanting ; tarsi setulose 

 beneath, claws simple. Wings normal ; areolet narrowed above ; fenestrae 

 confluent. 



All previous authors have followed Wesmael in placing the present genus 

 among the Platyurini^ but the petiole is not at all, or so little as to be 

 quite inconspicuously, broader than high. Personally, I should place it 

 next before Ctenichneumon, but assign the present position, at the end of 

 the Aml>lypygi?ii, to it in deference to their opinion. Wesmael himself says, 

 in 1854, that the abdomen is sculptured, excepting the first segment, as in 

 his Amhlyteles, adding, however, that the petiole is broader, the meta- 

 thoracic spiracles shorter and the areolet sub-triangular. Thomson, in 

 1888, remarks the analogy of the structure of the whole body, antennae 

 and legs with that of Aniblyteks, excepting only the basal segment ; and, 

 in his " Opuscula," he says, "This genus agrees with Ctenichneunifln in 

 the most important characters, especially in the formation of the ventral 

 valvulae of the ?, but differs in the tuberculiform prominence (tuberkel- 



