Sphecophaga | BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 135 

from its centre; discnidal cell nearly double length of brachial, which 
emits the anal nervure from a little below its centre; basal nervure con- 
tinuous ; nervellus subopposite and intercepted in the centre. 
This genus has been variously termed Sphecophaga, Chyronomon, Caco- 
‘ropa and, incorrectly by myself, Sphegophaga. I have already given a 
detailed account of it (E. M. M. 1900, pp. 117—124) and it is only 
necessary to here give a précis, with such additional matter as has come 
to my knowledge during the last ten years. A single European and a 
single American species are alone known. 
1. vesparum, Curt. 
Anomalon vesparum, Curt. B. E. pl. et fol. cxevili,?. Tryphon vesparum, 
Ratz. Ichn. d. Forst. iii. 128, ¢. Cacotropa sericea, Thoms. O. E. xii. 1259 ; 
Bloesch, Feuil. jeun. Nat. 1895, p. 75, ¢ @. Sphegophaga vesparum, Morl. E. 
M. M.1900, p. 118, ¢ ?. 
A black and very dull species with the pronotum white-marked, the 
abdomen mainly castaneous and legs dark red. Head normal and black, 
very closely and finely punctate, with the labrum and inner orbits 
narrowly, and in @ also the face, mouth and cheeks, white ; mandibular 
teeth of equal length. Antennae longer than thorax, with rigid pile and 
not apically attenuate ; black, or in ¢ with scape white beneath. ‘Thorax 
discally subdeplanate, very dull with tegulae, radical callosities, a prono- 
tal line and ¢ mesoternum laterally, white ; metathorax with petiolar 
area extending beyond centre, nitidulous and hardly punctate; areola 
entire in macropterous form only. Scutellum black. Abdomen suboval 
in macropterous, broadly ovate in brachypterous, form ; densely and very 
finely punctate, centrally or entirely or except its base, castaneous-red ; 
second segment subtransverse and the basal curved. Legs fulvidous with 
coxae, trochanters and tarsi black, anterior legs of ¢ basally white be- 
neath; hind tibiae subinfuscate; calcaria of unequal length. Wings 
subhyaline with stigma infuscate and radius not always apically curved. 
Length, 4—7 mm. 
The development of the wings is variable in this species, and that of 
the thorax and shape of the abdomen appears to vary in direct ratio : 
brachypterous examples have the metathoracic costae ill defined, the 
petiolar area often striate and the abdomen not only paler but more 
broadly ovate. In one example, in Bridgman’s collection, the antennae, 
though both perfect, are of very unequal length. Curtis beautifully 
figures the brachypterous, and André (Spp. Hym. d’Europ. ii. pl. xxxiy, 
fig. 6) indifferently the macropterous, form. 
The eggs are laid upon the bodies of wasp grubs, even in the earliest- 
made layer of the latter’s nest, to no particular part of which they are 
confined. The parasitic larvae subsist upon the wasp grubs until the 
latter become full fed and seal down the operculum of their cells ; they 
then devour the remainder of the grub from below, shielded from attack 
both by the operculum and demolished pupa skin, the head of which re- 
mains intact immediately below the operculum and though at first full of 
fluid, later becomes dessicated. ‘The larva of Sphecophaga is said by 
André (/.c. p. 508; pl. xxxiv, fig. 8) to be somewhat elongate, a little 
curved, attenuate at both extremities and somewhat swollen centrally ; 
