Mesoletus | BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 151 
alutaceous and shining, speculum small and glittering; metanotal areae 
sharply defined, areola triangular and basally truncate, basal area small 
and quadrate, petiolar area hexagonal. Abdominal segments two and 
three more or less broadly red; the first two dull and rugosely punctate, 
with remainder nitidulous; basal segment as long as hind coxae, its basal 
fovea apically open, emitting two very distinct carinae extending slightly 
beyond spiracles. Anterior legs fulvous with coxae and trochanters of g 
stramineous; hind ones red with their tibiae broadly whitish before their 
distinctly black base, and apically, like the tarsi and apices of their stout 
femora, nigrescent; anterior tarsi and all the calcaria white; claws weak. 
Wings with no areolet; stigma dull stramineous, radix and tegulae whitish; 
nevellus subopposite. Length, 6 mm. 
Pfankuch’s description of the @ type differs so little from that of 
Holmgren and Thomson, excepting in the apical clypeal structure, that I 
have considered them synonymous. The former in 1876 regarded his 
1855 Y as misplaced, but that brought forward by Brischke (/7d. cz/. 1890, 
p- 104) appears correctly here placed. 
It was introduced by Marshall in 1872, probably on account ofa 9, 
still in his collection, from Botusfleming in Cornwall; it appears very rare 
with us, since the only record is that of a ? at Earlham near Norwich, 
which Bridgman doubtfully referred to the present species. I possess a 
single ¢ in Capron’s Surrey collection. It is distributed through Silesia, 
Prussia, Sweden and France. 
16. elegans Parf. 
Mesoleius elegans, Parf. Entomologists’ Monthly Magazine, 1882, p. 273, ?. 
A black species, with hind tibiae and tarsi immaculate fulvous. Head 
posteriorly buccate and broader than thorax; clypeus, palpi and man- 
dibles flavous. Antennae nearly as long as body, dull ferrugineous, with 
scape black and beneath flavous. Thorax subincrassate, black with 
lateral hamate mesonotal marks, a dot before and line below radices (and 
the sternum ?), flavous; notauli distinct. Scutellum and postscutellum 
dull red, or sometimes black. Abdomen black with all the segments 
except the first fulvous-banded, and more broadly towards the anus, 
stramineous-margined ; first segment gradually constricted basally, cen- 
trally convex, strongly bicarinate and deeply sulcate “ half the length from 
the middle to the base.’ Legs including hind tibiae and tarsi fulvous ; 
anterior coxae and trochanters stramineous, black at their extreme base ; 
hind ones black, apically flavous. Wings ample, hyaline, with stigma and 
radius pale testaceous. Length, 7} mm. 9 only. 
The abdominal colouration is said to vary to a considerable extent. 
Parfitt seems to have worked his species down to JZ. amadilis, in Holm- 
gren’s Dispositio of 1876, from which he says it differs in its coxal colour- 
ation and distinctly antefurcal nervellus. 
“It appears to be widely and sparsely distributed, it has been taken 
by Mr. Bridgman, in the Norwich district, and by Mr. G. Bignell, near 
Plymouth, and I have taken two specimens near Exeter” (/. ¢.). 
