90 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. | Homocidus 

rugulose. Scutellum and sometimes postscutellum apically stramineous. 
Abdomen with the subscabriculous three or four basal segments apically 
flavescent throughout (form typ.) or with their lateral angles alone pale 
(var. /ateralis); basal segment of ? subquadrate, of ¢ a little longer than 
broad, basally dilated with the discal carinae not very distinct. Legs red, 
with the hind tarsi and apices of their tibiae nigrescent; anterior coxae 
entirely and hind ones apically, with all the trochanters, flavous. Wings 
with transverse anal nervure intercepted in or slightly below the centre. 
Length, 33—6 mm. 
Holmgren says the var. scabriculus has the frons more distinctly sulcate, 
the clypeus more deeply sinuate apically, no pale mark before the radices 
and the transverse anal nervure intercepted nearly in the centre. All the 
forms are of equal frequency with us, and one of my Scotch females has 
the abdomen wholely black. I have examined the type of Marshall's 
Spitzbergen species in the British Museum.* 
This is the earliest of all the Bassides to appear in the perfect state ; it 
is distributed through Belgium, Holland, France, Sweden and Germany, 
where it occurs on umbels in September, etc. With us it would almost 
appear to be double-brooded, since it is commonest from 6th May to the 
middle of June and is then not found till August, when it is abroad till 
25th September; I have never found it in July. It is recorded from the 
Lands End by Marquand, Lynn by Atmore, Brundall and Eaton by 
Bridgman, Bickleigh in June and August by Bignell, and the Isle of Man 
by Marshall, who also took it at Cornworthy, Nunton in Wilts and Darenth 
Wood ; I have seen it from South Leverton in Notts. (Thornley), Golspie 
in Scotland (Yerbury), Lenzie in Scotland in June (Malloch), North Ber- 
wick and Birnam in Perth (Elliott), Devonport and Blastne (Garde), and 
Shere (Capron). It is not infrequent in Suffolk on birch and other bushes 
in woods in the spring and on the flowers of Avge/ica in the autumn at 
Bentley Woods, Tuddenham Fen, Finborough Park, Needham Market ; 
and at Chippenham Fen in Cambridgeshire. The only suggestion con- 
cerning its parasitism that we have is invested in a specimen that Mr. W. 
H. Tuck bred from among spiders’ webs in his stable at Tostock House, 
Suffolk, on 4th June, 1902; with it appeared a species of Zzmmnerium and 
a 3 of Doryctes spathitformis, which is known to prey upon the Death 
Watch, Anobium domesticum ; but the Bassus is hardly likely to have sub- 
sisted upon an Arachnid or Coleopterous diet, 
2. bizonarius, Grav. 
Bassus bizonarius, Gr. I. E. iii. 350, ¢; Brisch. Schr. Phys. Ges. Konig. 1871, 
p. 104; Schr. Nat. Ges. Danz. 1878, p.111, ¢ ¢. (?) B. frontalis, Brisch. lL. c. 
p.113, ¢. 8B. cingulatus, Holmgr. Sv. Ak. Handl. 1855, p. 369, ¢. Homoporus 
bizonarius, Thoms. O. E. xiv. 1493; Morl. Trans. Ent. Soc. 1905, p. 426, ¢ @. 
Head fully as broad as thorax ; mouth, clypeus, inner orbits and oftena 
facial mark stramineous; frons smooth and canaliculate, clypeus de- 
planate and apically hardly emarginate. Antennae somewhat longer than 
half the body, testaceous beneath, with the scape of @ stramineous be- 
neath. Mesonotum usually with small hamate marks before and below 
* Marshall’s specimens were usually carded, which circumstance led him to describe a species of 
Euceros under the name Bassus peronatus (E. M. M. xii, p: 194); but this is not the case with his 
Bassus vemotus (Ent. Rec. viii. 1896, p. 296), which is a Plectiscid with acute mandibles; both types 
are in Mus. Brit. With them are two females of the present species, misnamed and wrongly intro- 
duced as British by him, as Cteniscus cingulatorvius, Holmgr.; they are from Ben Nevis. 
