320 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. [^f,soc/lonlS 



parasitical ly through CasiJian'a ''idiia, in tlie New Forest. I possess a 

 couple of females of Thomson's form, bred by Clutten at Barnsley on 

 1 6th June, 1900, from a cocoon of ]\Ielconis albidiiarsiis. Curt. — which it 

 strongly resembles except in neuration — and another, captured on 3rd 

 September, 19 10, at Torphins by Elliott. 



7. vitticollis, Holmgr. 



Mcsochonts splcndidnltis, var. 7, Gr. I.E. ii. 965, ? . M. vitticollis, Holmgr. 

 Sv. Ak. Handl. 1858, p. 128; Brisch. Schr. Nat. Ges. Danz. 1880, p. 181 ; Thorns. 

 Ann. Soc. Fr. 1885, p. 337, <? ? . 



A black species ; face with orbits, part of thorax and the legs pale ; 

 base and apex of hind tibiae black-marked ; face somewhat strongly, and 

 niesopleurae closely, punctate. Head testaceous with a central frontal 

 vitta, coalescent with a large occipital mark, black ; vertex not narrow, 

 cheeks subbuccate and not very short; mandibles stout and elongate, not 

 apically constricted, with the lower tooth the longer ; face cjuadrate. 

 Antennae pale, elongate and subtestaceous. Thorax rarely entirely 

 black, usually with two mesonotal vittae and mesosternal lines pale ; 

 areola narrow and elongate, petiolar area centrally and at sides short and 

 subparallel-sided. Scutellum pale, rarely black. Abdomen black with 

 second segment triangularly flavidous and the remainder in 9 always, in 

 J sometimes, pale; petiole narrow, with spiracles of basal segment 

 central ; terebra not subulate, shorter than first segment. Legs pale 

 flavous, with apices of hind coxae occasionally nigrescent ; hind tibiae 

 with their apical margin subsetulose, apices dilato-reflexed, and at ex- 

 treme base and apex black ; hind tarsi very slightly infuscate-testaceous 

 towards their apices ; claws submutic and longer than pulvilli. Wings 

 hyaline, with stigma always testaceous; parallel nervure emitted a little 

 above centre of brachial cell ; nervellus suboblique and postfurcal ; basal 

 nervure continuous and areolet not sessile. Length, 7-10 mm. 



Brischke says the $ sometimes has the thorax red with only the meso- 

 sternum and metanotum black, at others with the mesopleurae rufescent- 

 flavous. 



This species is common and is found over the whole of Europe ; it 

 occurs throughout Sweden, and is found in Belgium from July to Sept- 

 ember ; in Prussia it has been raised from Cainpoplex cocoons in larvae of 

 Fidonia cchraria and from a Alicrogasicr in larvae of Cucullia argentca. V>\ 

 no means abundant in Britain, as far as is at present known ; Wroxham 

 and Eaton near Norwich in June ; bred by Bignt'll from Xylina rhizolitha 

 and by W. Fletcher from C'hrysocoris fts/alicl/a (Bridg. Norf. Trans. 1894 

 el Entom. 1884., p. 71); King's Lynn (in coll. Atmore) ; a full series from 

 Shere in Surrey (Capron) ; Devonshire (de la Garde); on bank of the 

 Tay at Birnam in Perth, by sweeping in August, 1907 (Elliott). 1 have 

 swept it at dusk early in June, 1900, at Bungay, and beateri it from birch 

 in Tuddenham Fen in the middle of August, in Sulfolk; taken it in the 

 middle of June on the bank of the Nene near Peterborough in 1908, in 

 woods near Market Rasen in Lines in 19 12, and in the middle of August, 

 1 90 1, a female turned uj) at Lyndhurst in the New Forest. 



