Homocidus | BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 95 

with hind tarsi, and except their white base, tibiae black ; ¢ with anterior 
coxae basally and hind ones nearly entirely black, as well as the tibiae 
internally dull white. Wings hyaline with stigma dark testaceous. Length, 
4—5 mm. 
This species may be known by its broad head, excavate but not sulcate 
frons; black, dull and apically subincised clypeus ; broad cheeks, apically 
explanate face, elongate calcaria, black hind tibiae and tarsi, of which the 
former are basally white. 
It is a very variable species in colour; Thomson tabulates five 9 and 
one ¢ varieties :—the former sometimes has (1) the scutellum and post- 
scellum apically white throughout (2. deplanatus), coupled with either 
(2) a castaneous mark on either side at base of the second and third seg- 
ments; or (3) the epistoma centrally white, sometimes together with 
(4) humeral whitish mesonotal marks and the anterior coxae basally, 
the hind ones nearly entirely, black; or (5) the hind femora apically 
black (&. rufipes); the ¢ sometimes has the anterior coxae whitish and 
the hind ones red, apically black (var. 1, Holmgr.). 
Gravenhorst knew but a single male taken, together with his single 
female (type) of the var. deplanaius, at bramble on October rst ; Brischke 
also found it in Germany; in Sweden, Holmgren leads one to suppose 
that neither is rare, but that the var. rwfifes outnumbers the typical form 
in frequency; and the latter is recorded as parasitic upon various species 
of Syrphus by Pes in France, though pointedly omitted from de 
Gaulle’s Cat. Hym. France of 1908. In Britain the only records I can 
find are Marquand’s from the Lands End and Bignell’s from south Devon, 
where he captured it at Laira on roth July, and Bickleigh on 21st 
August ; Bridgman did not find it in Norfolk, but there is a male in Mar- 
shall’s collection from St. Albans. I consider it distinctly uncommon in 
Britain, have never taken it myself, and possess only a few examples of 
both sexes, captured by Piffard at Felden in Herts, and the late Dr. Cap- 
ron at Shere in Surrey. In Marshall’s collection (Mus. Brit.) are three 
females of the var. rufipes, one with the metathorax dull rufescent, inclin- 
ing to the next species, from Cornworthy in Devon. MHaliday tells us, in 
his MS. diary in the Dublin Museum, that he found this species commonly 
in Ireland. 
8. abdominator, Bridg. 
Bassus abdominator, Bridg. Trans. Ent. Soc. 1886, p. 365,?. Homoporus 
abdominator, Thoms. O. E. xiv. 1502; Morl. Trans. Ent. Soc. 1905, p. 427, ¢. 
A black species with peculiar red markings. Head dull and finely 
punctate; black with mouth, a small epistomal spot and most of mandi- 
bles flavous; clypeus discreted, apically rounded and centrally subemar- 
ginate. Antennae about two-thirds the length of the body. Metathorax 
transverse with a large dull spot on either side, its apical angles prominent 
and no trace of areola. Scutellum apically flavous-lined. Abdomen longer 
than thorax; basal segment “dull red with a black central blotch,’’ dull 
scabrous with obsolete aciculation, ‘about one and a half times longer 
than broad,” with its apical half subconstricted; remaining segments 
transverse and somewhat dull with the apical compressed; second con- 
colorous, scabrous with distinct thyridii, and centrally striolate basally. 
Legs red with hind tarsi and apices of front coxae black; trochanters and 
base of coxae flavous; hind tibiae black, with the ‘extreme base whitish 
merging through dull red into the black.” Wings with no areolet, and 
