Ophion] BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 275 



INIetanotal carinae of very variable development, usually as in O. luteits. 

 Stigma testaceous, basally paler ; nervelet short or obsolete, never elon- 

 gate. Length, 15-22 nun. 



This has been recognised as a species distinct from O. hitciis since 

 1804, but in reality there is little beyond colouration — especially the pale 

 mesonotal vittae and base (also often apex) of stigma — to distinguish it, 

 as Vollenhoven, who wished to unite the two in 1878, justly remarks. 



By no means .so common with us as has been generally supposed and 

 merely occurring in single specimens; I have examples extending only 

 from Surrey to Lincolnshire. Wimbledon in October and Lewisham 

 (Beaumont), Kew Gardens (G. Nicholson), Tooting on ivy blossom in 

 autumn of 1898 (Sparke), Norbury at end of September (South), Hamp- 

 stead Heath (Image), Felden in Herts (Piffard), Knowle near Birmingham 

 (W. Ellis), at oil lamp in Ipswich at end of May (Flatten), Tostock in 

 November, 1903 (Tuck), .Sherringham in Norfolk (Tonge), South Lever- 

 ton in Notts during September and Scotton Common in Lines (Thornley), 

 Lincoln, a male on gas lamp in October, 1900 (Musham). I first took it 

 at Shooters Hill near Blackheath in 1889; only once on an incandescent 

 street lamp in Ipswich on 28th October; early in June, 1903, Chitty 

 netted it flying to leaves of an oak at Brandon ; and it has twice come to 

 light about 9 p.m. at Monk Soham in May and June, in the course of 

 seven years; I noticed that when the last specimen was about to fly it 

 raised its front legs high in the air, stood as high as possible upon its 

 posterior tarsi and flapped its wings with a sudden jerk, which precipi- 

 tated it but a short distance into the air. The only bred example I have 

 seen, besides Lyle's, was received from Slater, brt'd from a peculiarly woolly 

 cocoon — rougher than is figured by Bridg. -Fitch — "which emerged from 

 Leucania st minima at Doncaster; the imago died at the end of April, 

 1909, but was still soft" when received on the yth ■Mav. 



Records are from Sparham in Norfolk and bred from Agroiis trilici 

 (Bridg. Norf. Soc. 1894, j). 617); Bickleigh in Devon on 14th June (Big- 

 nell), Yorkshire, "common through county" (Trans. Vorks. Nat. Union, 

 1878, p. 09); Co. Armagh (Johnson, Irish Nat. 1904, p. 256). It has 

 been bred in Britain from Dkranura viiiula (Eedle, Entoni. xiii, p. 68), 

 Arge gahitia (Raynor, Entom. xvii, p. 179), and by Bignell from Hadcita 

 protea and Epumla licheiica (Bridg. -Fitch, I.e. 1884, p. 179). The Conti- 

 nental naturalists have raised it from Sesia fonnicacforinis, Pscudopiiipna 

 cylisaria and Agroiis porphyria (Brischke), Bomhyx pitii, Hybcrnia auran- 

 tiaria — cf. Ophion minuiiis, infra — and Pachiira U'ucophaca (Ratzeburg), 

 Airofiyc/a Uporiua (I)rewsen), Epistina scoriaaa, Es[). and Polysphattiis 

 scrica/a, Bkh. (IMocsary). Schmiedi'knecht considers it widely spread but 

 rarer than (). liiliiis. In the New Forest, Lyle tells me that its larva 

 usually emerges from thai of its host in the middle of .May, thus the larva 

 deserted that of Triphaaia fimbria on loth May, 1902, but did not attain 

 the perfect state till the following April; a forced female was bred from 

 the same host at the end of February, 191 1; and a larva thai emerged 

 from the caterpillar oi Noclua ncglicta in May, 1903, did not attain the 

 perfect state till T4tli A])ril, 1904. 



