Metopius | BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 3 
locality as this moth. His petition to “ Hyménopterophiles a compléter 
a l’occasion les détails qui m’ont échappé sur les moeurs de cet insecte”’ 
has hitherto met with no response, excepting from M. l’abbé J. Dominique, 
who has “quelques mots sur les Metopius de la Loire-inférieure” in 
Bul. Soc. Sc. Nat. Ouest-France, 1898, p. 83; he evidently did not know 
the five new species described by Arn. Férster in “Eine centurie neuer 
Hymenopteren” (Verh. pr. Rheinl. 1850, p. 277). 
M. Doumerc synonymizes his parasite with J/. mzcratorius, Fab.; in all 
other instances but a doubtful one, that species has been bred from much 
smaller moths, while JZ. den/a/us, Fab., is, as far as at present can be 
ascertained, exclusively attached to Bombyces. Hence I consider M. 
Doumerc’s. observations, of which we saw something under /femz/eles 
floricolator, Gr. (Ichn. Brit. ii. 145), better placed generically. This genus 
preys on Lepidoptera and the two doubtful instances of van Vollenhc ven 
from Tenthredinidae are almost certainly errors. 
Those caring for a broader knowledge of the genus may consult my 
attempt to tabulate the world’s species, about to be published by the 
British Museum ‘Trustees. 
Table of Species. 
(2). 1. Mandibles apically bifid; 2nd recur- 
rent nervure bifenestrate sl DENDALUS. “@es 
(1). 2. Mandibles mutic; second recurrent 
nervure unifenestrate. 
(4). 3. Radial cell not determinately in- 
fumate ee ak: oe .. 2. MICRATORIUS, Fad. 
(3). 4. Radial cell very determinately in- 
fumate. 
(6). 5. Frons acutely cornute; legs entirely 
black es Be ar .. 3. FUSCIPENNIS, Wesm. 
(5).. 6. Frons mutic; legs usually broadly 
pale. 
(8). 7. Abdomen caerulescent ; scutellum 
laterally rectangular apically .. 4. DISSECTORIUS, Pz. 
(7). 8. Abdomen black; scutellum laterally 
spinose apically .. ae .. 5.» PELTATOR, Marsh. 
1. dentatus, Fab. 
Ichneumon dentatus, Fab. S. 1. i. 486; Gmel. S.N. 2707, ¢. Pimpla den- 
data, Fab. Piez. 119. Peltastes pini, Curt. B. E. ed.i, pl. iv. P. dentatus, 
Curt. l.c. ed. ii, pl. iv, ¢; Farm Ins. 485. Metopius dentatus, Gr. I. E. iii. 
304; Wesm. Bul. Ac. Brux. 1849, p. 629, ¢ ¢; Holmgr. Sv. Ak. Handl. 1855, 
p- 374, excl. ¢; cf. Sichel et Gouley, Ann. Soc. Fr. 1865, p. xxvi (ec Voll.). 
M. interruptus, Thoms. Deut. Ent. Zeit. 1887, p. 197, ¢ ¢. 
Head with the face of 9 laterally flavous, of g with palpi, mandibular 
mark, the clypeus and whole face concolorous ; mandibles apically emar- 
ginate ; face distinctly carinate above and below. Antenne black or at 
most infuscate above; beneath with flagellum fulvous and scape nearly 
always flavous-marked. Thorax with a line before and a smaller one 
beneath radices, often two metanotal marks and in ¢ a subperpendicular 
mark on the mesopleurae, flavous. Scutellum with its basal angles, apical 
margin, and in @ a transverse line on the postscutellum, flavous. 
Abdomen with apices of all the segments pale stramineous, those of the 
first always and second sometimes alone centrally interrupted. Legs of 
B2 
