98 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. [ Homocidus 


This is the only Bassus I know that may or may not possess an areolet ; 
when present it is very small, oblique, consisting of little more than the 
duplication of the basal vein; only one female of my seventy specimens 
possesses it; it is the var. favus, Desv. = var. c. alis areola completa, 
Thoms. Van Burgst in r911 records it from the Hague in September. 
Panzer, who thought this species “‘ similis Basso (Larinus) gloriatorio, 
ast alius et distinctus,” found it on flowers in German woods. It is an 
extremely abundant species throughout northern and central Europe, 
extending eastwards as far as India, whence I have seen it. In Britain it 
is abroad from May 18th to September 26th, though much scarcer in July 
than in spring and autumn. ‘The males are frequently met with on um- 
belliferous flowers, especially those of Angelica sylvestris, and the females 
may often be swept from grass in dry and reeds in marshy places, and I 
have taken the latter in June flying about bramble blossom in my garden 
at Monks’ Soham*. Ratzeburg says (/oc. c7/.) that B. exulfans was several 
times bred by Hrn. Bouché from Coccinella septempunctata, Linn., in 
Prussia (cf Morl. Trans. Ent. Soc. 1907, p. 12) and later he records both 
B. exultans and B. insignis from species of Sy7phus ; some doubt must 
remain regarding the former host, since the habits of both are analogous, 
and the observation is altogether abnormal. Marshall records both sexes 
of B. tnsignis from Depressaria angelicella, Hubn., an even more improbable 
host (Ent. Ann. 1874, p. 125), especially as Giraud bred it without doubt 
from Syrphus balteatus (Ann. Soc. France, 1877, p. 408). Moreover, on 
13th August, 1907, I observed a female Z. /arsaforius investigating a plant 
of Sonchus oleraceus in my garden at Monks’ Soham; it walked over the 
stem and appeared most interested in the Aphides, Szphonophora sonchi, 
Linn., which partly covered it, though I could not see that it attacked 
them in any way and no Syrphid larva was apparent. 

11. fissorius, Grav. 
Bassus fissorius, Gr. 1.E. iii. 335; Ratz. Ichn. d. Forst. iii. 116; Kriech. Ent. 
Nachr. 1877, p. 166, ? (zec Holmgr. et Brisch.). B. punctatus, Bridg. Trans. 
Ent. Soc. 1887, p. 375, ¢. Homoporus fissorius, Thoms. O.E. xiv. 1504; Morl. 
Trans. Ent. Soc. 1905, p. 427,36 ¢. 
Black with humeral marks, sides of scutellum determinately, mouth, 
epistoma or in @ whole face and cheeks, and the centrally excised 
clypeus, stramineous; legs red with hind tarsi and apices only of their 
tibiae black; @ coxae entirely black. Length, 64—8 mm. 
Known by its robust conformation, entirely black @ coxae, hind tibiae 
with no tinge of white and their apex alone black; and especially by the 
determinately and conspicuously white sides of the scutellum. It is simi- 
lar to 7. ¢arsaforius in colouration, the not excavate frons, wing nervures 
and stigma; but it is stouter with the vertex not at all emarginate, clypeus 
apically more deeply emarginate centrally and laterally reflexed; post- 
* Details of localities:—Netley (Gravenhorst), common in Ireland (Haliday MS. in Dublin 
Museum), Glanvilles Wootton (Dale), Bugbrook in Northants, Cornworthy, Bishops Teignton, Niton 
in Isle of Wight, Botusfleming, Lastingham in Yorks, and Nunton in Wilts (Marshall), Foxhall in 
Suffolk (Newbery), Caterham and Co. Down (Champion), Lands End (Marquand), Aldeburgh and 
Tostock (Tuck), North Berwick and Askrigg (Elliott), Hunstanton (Brunetti), Kings Lynn (Atmore), 
Lakenham, Heigham and Mousehold, Norfolk (Bridgman), Hastings (Vict. Hist.), Bickleigh and 
Plym Bridge, Devon (Bignell), Shere (Capron), Worksop (Miss Alderson), Alderney (Luff), Felden in 
Herts (Piffard), Reigate (W. Saunders), South Leverton in Notts. (Thornley), Harrogate (Roebuck). 
I have taken it at Chippenham Fen in Cambs. and at Ryde in Isle of Wight; and in Suffolk at Bran- 
don, Harkstead, Bentley Woods, Tuddenham Fen, Lowestoft, Reydon, Southwold, Henstead, 
Monks’ Soham, and Finborough. 
