136 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. [ Protarchus 

Abdomen testaceous with basal three-fourths of the first segment, and the 
fifth to anus, black. Legs very long and stramineous or testaceous with 
the hind tibiae, except their more or less nigrescent apices, paler ; usually 
their hind coxae above and more or less of the hind femora black. 
Tegulae, radix and callosity before them, stramineous; stigma of ¢@ 
flavous, of 2 piceous and basally paler. Length, 15—18 mm. 
It is said to occur in damp pine woods in southern Lapland, Sweden, 
Germany, Belgium and France. One female was bred by Dahlbom at 
Lund from the cocoon of Cimbex variabil’s (Ratz. 1. c.); bred from larvae 
of Zrichiosoma lucorum and 7. Sorbi, Htg. = Scalesti, Cam., in Prussia 
(Brischke /.c.). “Very rare: taken in June in the New Forest, and at 
Sheffield; also near Kimpton by the Rey. G. T. Rudd, to whom I am 
indebted for one sex”’ (Stephens). No one has mentioned it in Britain 
since 1835, but there is an unlocalised pair in Marshall’s collection. In 
1903, Waterston sent me a fine female from Taynuilt, together with the 
cocoon of Z7ichiosoma, fastened to a birch twig from which it had 
emerged ; this was entirely occupied by the white, silken cocoon of the 
parasite; Rev. F. D. Morice has another female, emerged from a similar 
cocoon at Aviemore. Perhaps it is a northern species with us, for Mr. 
C. H. Mortimer has recorded (E.M.M. 1910, p. 39) a female taken by him 
in the little isle ot Soay by Skye in September, 1909. I possess a fine 
series of both sexes from the late J. A. Clarke’s collection, unfortunately 
with no data, though certainly British. It was first found here by Curtis 
(Proc. Ent. Soc. 1853, p. 136), who bred it in 1828 from cocoons of his 
Trichtosoma pratense near Ambleside. Cameron’s record of this species 
from Cladius viminalts (11. 30) is a careless error, referring to AZesolecus 
armullatorius ; his indices to parasites are very faulty. 
MESOLEIUS. Holmgren. 
Holmgr. Sv. Ak. Handl. 1854, p. 62; Jib. cit. 1855, p. 130. 
Head transverse and not buccate, with the vertex emarginate ; clypeus 
generally distinctly discreted with its apex truncate, emarginate, rarely 
rounded throughout or centrally subproduced ; mandibular teeth subequal 
in length. Antennae elongate, setaceous and sometimes longer than 
body ; scape ovate; basal flagellar joint not rarely half as long again as 
the second. ‘Thorax rarely deplanate, usually nitidulous ; notauli strong 
or obsolete ; metanotal areae usually distinct, costulae always wanting ; 
petiolar area generally entire but always small; pleurae of variable sculp- 
ture, with the speculum (the convex area immediately below the wings) 
usually glabrous and glittering. Scutellum subconvex, very often pale. 
Abdomen oblong-ovate or sublanceolate, often a little compressed at its 
apex in 9, or throughout most of its length in Saotus-group ; first seg- 
ment gradually and evenly constricted basally, with the extent of discal 
carinae and their intermediate sulcus variable; spiracles before centre ; 
terebra straight and rarely extending beyond anus. Legs always dis- 
tinctly slender with the hind femora elongate. Wings subample with 
areolet usually entirely wanting, or complete and triangular, often petio- 
late; disco-cubital nervure subarcuate, rarely nearly straight; nervellus 
opposite or antefurcal, very rarely postfurcal. 
Since the great majority of the species of Zzyphon, placed alpha- 
