158 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. [ Mesoletus 

the anterior coxae and trochanters, and apex of hind trochanters, stra- 
mineous ; hind coxae, except apically in @, and base of their trochanters 
black. Length, 7 mm. 
At once known from J/. aulicus, which the mesopleural sculpture and 
abdominal colour resemble, by the black hind coxae, base of their tro- 
chanters, central 9 face and usually whole of the scutellum, by the im- 
maculate fulvous hind tibiae and but slightly infuscate hind tarsi. I have 
examined Stephens’ type in Mus. Brit. and find it agrees ad amussim with 
Holmgren’s description. 
“Taken in June near London” (Stephens); I possess a second example, 
captured by Marshall at Govilon on the River Usk near Abergavenny in 
Monmouth. Elsewhere it is only known from Sweden. 
25. caligatus, Grav. 
Tryphon sylvestris, Gr. I. E. ii. 138, ¢ (part.). JT. caligatus, Gr. I. E. ii. 170; 
Ste. Ill. M. vii. 233; Fonsc. Ann. Soc. Fr. 1849, p.222,¢. Mesoleius caligatus, 
Holmer. Sv. Ak. Handl. 1855, p. 135; Brisch. Schr. Phys. Ges. Kénig. 1871, 
p. 73,2; Holmgr. vic. 1876, p. 25, excl. ¢ > Voll Pinac. xxlli, fig. 3; Thoms. 
Olds soba, HUE), Gt 
A stout species. Head hardly constricted posteriorly; mouth and 
clypeus testaceous, with the latter apically subtridentate and_ centrally 
produced. Antennae infuscate and ferrugineous beneath, or red with the 
two first and base of third joints black, rufescent below. Thorax with 
callosities before and usually beneath radices red; notauli distinct; meso- 
sternum laterally smooth above, with speculum glabrous; metanotum 
short and shining with stout costae, areola centrally somewhat coarctate 
and subsulcate towards its apex; petiolar area extending to centre, sub- 
semicircular and centrally carinulate. Scutellum nearly always discally or 
apically, and the postscutellum, red. Abdomen and its ventral plica 
entirely black; basal segment laterally margined and discally carinate to 
beyond spiracles; terebra slightly exserted. Legs red with the hind 
tibiae and tarsi black, the former before their base whitish or obsoletely 
ferrugineous; hind legs subincrassate and subelongate, with stout tarsi. 
Wings often slightly infumate with stigma infuscate, radix and tegulae 
red; areolet wanting; nervellus subopposite and intercepted nearly in its 
centre. Length, 97—12 mm. 
This species is similar to AV. virgultorum and MM. vepretorum in size and 
outline but with the body larger and stouter, the first segment less con- 
tracted basally, and areolet wanting; it is also very like AZ. aulicus of 
which Gravenhorst thought the @ possibly little more than a variety. 
Tryphon sylvestris, Grav., has always been an enigma to systematists ; but 
Pfankuch cleared the matter up in 1906 by finding Gravenhorst’s speci- 
mens to consist of two male Lampronota melancholica and a single male of 
the present species, which must stand. The Mesoletus sylvestris, named 
by Bridgman and recorded by me from Guestling in the Victoria History 
of Sussex, isa ¢ Lampronota caligata, Grav. 
This species has been but little understood both here and abroad. 
Gravenhorst distinctly gives the minimum length at about 9 mm. and 
maximum at about 11 mm.; Holmgren says it varies only from 7—9 mm., 
which seems to have caused considerable confusion in our collections, 
especially as the species is so rare with us that examples do not become 
