Helicies] BRITISH ICHNEUMONS 25 



in the Highlands during- Julv, iqoq (misnamed mediator hy \ne, E.M.M. 

 1910, p. 37), Felden in Herts (Piffard) and Tostock. in Suffolk (Tuck). 

 Unfortunately 1 can add nothing; towards a knowledge of its economy, 

 for, though the species is abundant throughout Suffolk, it is invariably 

 met with by promiscuous sweeping of nettles and grass or beating of oak 

 and whitethorn, sometimes flying in the air on still days of July. I have 

 found it at Bentlev, Bramford, Reydon, Southwold, Belstead, Tuddenham 

 Fen, Staverton Thicks and Blakenham ; elsewhere at Gosfield in Essex, 

 Burwell Fen in Cambs, Felden in Herts, Ryde and Shalfleet in the Isle 

 of Wight and on bracken at Wilverly, Burley and Matley Bog in the New 

 Forest. 



4. varius, Hal. 



Helictes varius, Hal. Ann. Nat. Hist. 1839, p. 115, <? . 



Abdomen petiolate with the basal segment attenuate, laterally sinuate 

 with central tubercles; terebra concealed or hardly exserted. Thorax 

 coarctate-cylindrical. Antennae slender and curled with their basal joint 

 prominent, the scape bulbiform and obliquely excised. Areolet wanting. 

 Legs slender, with the hind ones subelongate. A central abdominal band 

 and the legs fulvous with the trochanters, anterior coxae and face, with 

 a hamate line before the wings, whitish. Length, 6 mm. 



This unique male was captured at Portmarnock on the coast of Dublin 

 during June. It is here included as a British insect, though no one has 

 recognised it since its first description, and I was unable to discover the 

 type among Haliday's collection in the Dublin Museum in 19 10, It cer- 

 tainly does not belong to the present genus, but I know not where else 

 to place it. 



MIOMERIS, Forster. 

 Forst. Verb. pr. Rheinl. 1868, p. 171 (?) : Forst. lib. cit. 1871, p. 91. 



Head subcubical with vertex discreted from occiput by an acute trans- 

 carina; face deplanate and not protuberant below scrobes; clypeus not 

 discreted, but with large lateral foveae; cheeks elongate and subbucate; 

 mandibles stout and little narrowed apically. Antennae of 9 short and 

 stout with short pilosity, of ^ longer and more slender; both sexes with 

 scape cylindrical and the first flagellar joint shorter than second, ^ with 

 the latter basally emarginate. Thorax stout, with short and deeply im- 

 pressed notauli; mesonotum deplanate; metathorax with strongly costate 

 areae, areola elongate and petiolar area short. Scutellum somewhat 

 deplanate. Abdomen petiolate, nearly smooth and shining, strongly 

 deplanate throughout, with spiracles of basal segment central and 

 terebra not exserted. Tibiae subcompressed and first joint of front tarsi 

 deeply excised basally. Aieolet wanting, with areolar nervure not short; 

 basal radial abscissa straight; parallel nervure emitted far below centre 

 of brachial cell; nervellus oblique and geniculate below its centre. 



This genus is said by Thomson to form a connecting link with the 

 Exoc/iid(S; I consider it mucli closer to the S/ilpnides. He described a 

 Swedish and French species, which had not the first flagellar joint shorter 

 than the second ; but this seems to nie a capital generic character. 



C2 



