Schizohmi'] BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 227 



dull ; metatliorax deplanati> with irregular lon«,riludinal carinae not radiat- 

 ing- from the obsolete areola, and centrally sulcate, with basal transcarina 

 often distinct. Abdomen and legs dark or clear red with the second and 

 sometimes the first segment discally, with apical third of hind tibiae, 

 alone black. Wings hyaline or subflavescent, apically subacuminate ; 

 stigma clear red, with nervures darker; radial cell narrow and lanceolate; 

 submarginal nervure as long as space between the second recurrent and 

 disco-cubital nervure, which latter is thence straight to its fenestra. 

 Length, 20-27 mm. 



The longitudinally multicarinate mctathorax, subacuminate front wings 

 and narrow radial cell will distinguish this from the next species. 



This species was originally described from the now headless female, 

 still preserved in the Banksian collection in I\Ius. Brit. (Entom. 1909, 

 p. 137), " Habitat in Anglia." It does not appear to be generally dis- 

 tributed on the Continent, though mentioned from Sweden, France, 

 Belgium and Gravenhorst records it from Silesia in August, Italy, etc., 

 and bred from the larva or pupa of Bomhyx pivcessionea, as noted by 

 Ratzeburg who probably raised it from Sphinx pinastri (vol. i) and cer- 

 tainlv from Bomhyx r///;/ and on 21st ]M ay from Bomhyx hucephala (vol. ii). 

 It has further been bred from Callimorpha dominula ^X. Miinich (Buche- 

 ker coll. in j\Ius. Brit.), Dasychira pudihunda and Hvlophila prasinana 

 (Brischke), RhizoJitha sp. ((iiraud, Ann. Soc. Fr. 1877, p. 405 ^Xvliua 

 rhizoli/ha, Bridg. -Fitch) abroad. With us it is "not uncommon in Britain 

 ... it is solitary in its parasitism . . . the larva makes a very thin cocoon 

 and emerges direct from the ])upa of its host," as Bridg. -Fitch truly say; 

 they could, however, only record it from CucuUia sp. (in INIus. Brit.), 

 (XouhiinWy ir ova De?nas CO ry I i SlwA from Enpithecia lituuiala — a wondrous 

 small host — from which Bignell bred it on 30th May and further took it 

 at Ivybridire in Devon on 3rd June. The male, figured by Curtis, was 

 captured by Mr. C. Lyeil at Kinnordy in Forfarshire. I have seen it from 

 Guernsey and Alderney* (Luff), Hastings (in the Museum there), Bantrv 

 in south-west Ireland (T. B. Fletcher), ex Hadcna okracea (Marshall coll.) ; 

 and possess it from Bcwdley (W. Ellis), Ipswich in 1H93 (Morley), Forres 



* I have known this species well for more than twenty years, and when it first came under my 

 observation I thus described it:— Head black; face (continued along the orbits of the eyes to a level 

 with the ocelli), a streak at the outer orbits of the eyes, clypeus, mandibles (for the most part) and 

 palpi testaceous or flavous ; coarsely punctate, distinctly on the top, much more finely at the sides 

 behind the eyes, and coarsely, indistinctly on the face : apical niart;in of clypeus rufescent, raised 

 and very distinctly bilobed ; mandibles darker at their apices which arc furnished with two teeth 

 the upper beint< distinctly lonser than the lower; mandibles punctate and pubescent, luarKined on, 

 at least, their lower side ; head much broadened and thickened behind the eyes (viewed from above ; 

 remindinfi one of Paniscus cephalotes, though broader), posterior margin of head with a distinct 

 margin and furnished with rufescent pubescence. A flattened black horn on the frons, just above 

 and between the insertion of the antennae. Antennae rufescent, becoming testaceous towards their 

 apices; scape red, flavous beneath, with small black spot above ; reaching to about the apex of the 

 second segment of the abdomen. Thorax black and pubescent; mesotliorax anil the flattened 

 scutellum finely and evenly scabrous, two small spots on either side of the postscutellum and a spot 

 before the insertion of the front wings obscurely ferrugineous ; melathorax with a central longitudinal 

 depressed line, whence five or six carinae run obliquely to the lateral margins; apex abruptly con- 

 stricted, produced into a small tooth on either side of (he insertion of the petiole ; nielathoracic 

 spiracles oblong. Abdomen glabrous, shining, rufescent; petiole red, abruptly constricted just 

 beyond its base ; spiracles placed near the apex ; secon<l segment red, its dorsum ilistinctly and 

 abruptly <|uite black ; following segments rufescent, becoming infuscale towards the apex. Legs 

 flavidous ; basal half, especially above, of hind coxae and apex of hind tibiaL- black ; hind trochanters 

 and femora testaceous ; tarsal claws simple, broadened and flattened at their bases, pulvilli black; 

 first joint of the hind tarsi about half as long again as the second ; these two joints about as broad as 

 the third is long, pubescent ; second joint viewed from beneath appears hollowed out like a canoe, 

 sulcate. Wings somewhat fulvesccnt ; veins brown ; stigma, base of costa, ami tegulae fulvous ; 

 anal nerve intercepts the posterior discoidal recurrent in about the centre; interior discoidal recur- 

 rent meeting the prebrachial at the centre of the first cubital cell (just below base of stigma) and 

 forming with it an almost straight line through the centre of ihe wing. Length, 23 mm. i in coll. 

 Luff ; Alderney. 



