Promethus | BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 123 

9. festivus, Fab. 
Ichneumon festivus, Fab. E. S. Suppl. 230; J. festivator, Thunb. Bull. Ac. 
Petersb. 1822, p. 265; J.c. 1824, p.319. Ophion festivator, Fab. Piez. 140; Oliv. 
Encycl. Méth. viii. 516; Bassus festivator, Gr. Nov. Act. Curios. 1818, p. 293. 
B. festivus, Gr. I. E. iii. 314, excl. varr. 2 e¢ 3; Ruthe, Stett. Ent. Zeit. 1859, 
p. 372, ¢?; Brisch. Schr: Nat. Ges. Danz. 1878, p. 113, ¢; J.c. 1891, p.63, 3 (nec 
Zett. et Holmgr.). Promethus festivus, Thoms. O. E. xiv. 1484; Morl. Trans. 
Ent. Soc. 1905, p. 429. 
Head large, body stout and black with third and apex of second abdo- 
minal segments, the femora and tibiae, red; mesonotum nitidulous and 
in ? impunctate; antennae and wings short; anus of Q strongly com- 
pressed. Length, 42—54 mm. 
The vertex is thick and the head a little broader than the thorax; 
cheeks wanting, but broadly excavate behind the base of black and cen- 
trally pale mandibles; face shining and distinctly punctate; clypeus sub- 
discreted, black, apically broadly emarginate and laterally subacutely 
produced; ¢ with the frontal orbits shortly and the face alone pale. 
Antennae stout and not reaching apex of thorax, black and in g pale 
beneath. Thorax strongly coarctate and black with a small pale callosity 
before radix; mesonotum usually nitidulous and subglabrous in ?, punc- 
tate in ¢; metathorax subrugosely punctate, with distinct areae. Scutel- 
lum black. Abdomen short, of @ subdeplanate, of 9 very strongly 
compressed apically from the centre; basal segment short with no 
carinae; the second not apically scabrous, with its apex and the third 
entirely red. Legs not very slender, red with coxae and trochanters, 
except anterior of ¢, black ; apices of the hind tibiae and tarsi nigrescent. 
Wings short and somewhat distinctly clouded ; basal nervure vertical and 
radial cell short; nervellus subopposite and intercepted in its centre. 
The @ sometimes has a small pale epistomal mark; the third segment of 
6 is often black-marked, rarely black with but a rufescent fascia, and its 
hind femora are occassionally black towards their apices. 
It is at once known by the coarctate body, broad vertex which renders 
the head very conspicuous, shining mesonotum, short wings and antennae, 
and the compressed @ anus. 
The distribution extends throughout northern and central Europe and 
Gravenhorst took it in June, July, August and September on umbelliferous 
flowers. Its economy is become involved in consequence of its difficult 
synonymy: Van Vollenhoven states (Pinac. 3) that ‘“‘Heeger in the Isis 
for 1848, p.986 mentions that out of the caterpillar of Heliodines Roesella, 
L. amongst other parasites also came forth &. festivus, F.”; but Dalla 
Torre ascribes its breeding from LVachista roesella to Rondani, without 
reference. The latter also refers the raising of this species from the 
Curculionid beetle, Phy/onomus polygoni to Brischke, but it appears to me 
to be nothing by a restatement of Gravenhorst’s record (cf. P. pulchellus, 
supra). Probably the only reliable host is that given by Brischke, in 
1878, when he says “Aus S)7fhus-Tonnchen erzogen.” It is not a very 
common species in Britain, though recorded from Lands End (Marquand); 
Bickleigh, in August (Bignell); Cringleford, in Norfolk (Bridgman); Read- 
ing and Shotover, Oxford, at the end of July (Hamm); Ripple near Dover, 
and St. Margarets Bay, in Kent in July (Sladen); Bungay, Suffolk (Tuck); 
and doubtfully from Bishop Wood, in Yorks (Bairstow). Most of my 
specimens are from Shere and Felden, and | have but thrice taken it in 
