200 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. [Angt/ia 



pale; clypeus apically truncate. Antennae immaculate. Thorax not 

 stout; metanotal costulae obsolete or wanting; areola apically incomplete. 

 Abdomen black with the postpetiole quadrate and i)arallel-sided, with 

 prominent spiracles; second segment of 9 hardly longer than broad; 

 seventh segment not excised; terebra longer than basal segment and 

 extremely strongly curled over the anus. Legs with femora and tibiae 

 red, the hind ones basally and their tibiae also sometimes apically infus- 

 cate, latter not at all centrally whitish ; all the trochanterelli, anterior 

 trochanters and apices of their coxae pale, often flavous. Areolet small 

 and c^blique, at least in (^ sometimes wanting. Length, 4-5 mm. 



Known by its small, strongly oblique and elongately petiolated areolet, 

 which is sometimes wanting, by the strongly reflexed terebra, wliich is a 

 little longer than half abdomen and emitted from centre of the venter, and 

 by the pale coxal and trochanteral colouration. In some of my speci- 

 mens the costulae are present, in others absent ; and the variability of the 

 areolet renders nugatory any claims of specimens of this group to generic 

 rank on the entirety of this feature. 



It was first bred in Germany by its author from galls of the Tenthre- 

 dinid IVema/us Peduncidi on 3rd June, 1849, and of A^. Saliceti on 27th 

 May, 1850. Although these are partly ascribed to Brischke, I can hardly 

 think that all his specimens, which seem to differ in their " basis der 

 Hintertibien immer gelb " (Schr. Nat. Ges. Danz, 1880, p, 164) can be 

 ascribed to this species, for he raised them from such diverse hosts 

 as pupae of Tortrix lacvigana and Rtiitiia resiftaiia, larvae of Nematus 

 Valisnierii and PhyUoloma microcephala in Prussia. That it is attached to 

 sawflies is proved by Thomson who raised it from salix-feeding species in 

 Sweden. Holmgren's species was described from grassy places in 

 Southern Lapland, of infrequent occurrence, and his name does not 

 appear to have been noticed elsewhere, though A. vcstigialis is recorded 

 from France (Gaulle) and has been recently bred about Breda in Holland 

 during May from Pontcuiia Valisnierii (Burgst). I venture to synonymise 

 Holmgren's species with the present since two females from Shere, named 

 Limnnia flcxicauda by Capron, certainly belong to it. It has long been 

 known in Britain under the broader genus, though Ratzeburg's name 

 was not introduced until 1881 (Trans. Ent. Soc. p. 161), and is probably 

 erroneously recorded as bred from Pcro7iea hastiana by Perkins (Entom. 

 1883, p. 66) at Wootton-under-Edge. On 31st July, 191 1, I caught three 

 females and saw others flying round and alighting upon the numerous 

 galls of Pontania proxima, Lep., on willow in my Monk Soham garden ; 

 they were quite doubtless ovipositing in these galls, though I failed to 

 witness the act. Bignell gathered some of the same galls {iVema/us galii- 

 cola) in Devon on 25th August, 1884, and bred this parasite from them on 

 nth of the following October (Entom. 1885, p. 152); and on a card 

 supporting A^. gallicola, Westw., in Mus. Brit., Marshall has noted " Its 

 parasite is Limncria curvicaicda, Holmg." The parasite does not always 

 emerge the same year ; for, from some of the above galls, gathered on 

 19th October, 191 1, I bred a female P. proxima and a male A. vcs/igialis 

 to-day, 24th April, 19 12. Piffard also found it at Feldcn and Johnson in 

 Ireland. 



