Mesoletus | BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 159 

easily available. On the Continent it seems to range through Germany, 
where Brischke has bred it from larvae of Wematus fulvus and Cladius 
viminalts, Sweden, Holland and France. Bignell alone recorded it with 
us; he took it once at Horrabridge in Devon on 16th June; but the only 
example I have seen is a magnificent ? of the maximum size in Mus. 
Brit. ex. coll. Desvignes. 
26 variegatus, Jurine. 
Anomalon variegatum, Jur. Nouv. Méth. 1807, 116, pl. viii, fig. 2; Gr. I. E. 
iii. 874, ¢.. Tryphon sanguinicollis, Gr. I. E. ii. 187; Ste. Ill. M. vii. 242; 
Ratz. Ichn. d. Forst. iii. 128, ¢ ¢. Mesoleius sanguinicollis, Holmgr. Sv. Ak. 
Handl. 1854, p.71, ¢; lib. cit. 1855, p. 137; l.c. 1876, p.13; Gir. Verh. z.-b. 
Ges. 1863, p. 1286; Voll. Pinac. pl. xxiii, fig. 6; Thoms. O. E. KixaO7Zas od Sew. 
variegatus, Kriech. Mitt. Schw. Ges. 1882, p.391; Pfank. Zeits. Hym.-Dip. 
1906, p. 219. 
A somewhat coarctate species. Head posteriorly narrow; mouth and 
clypeus whitish, the latter apically subrounded in its centre, with lateral 
angles distinct. Thorax black, with a callosity before radices whitish ; 
notauli distinct; mesosternum laterally smooth above and_ obsoletely 
punctate below; metanotal costae distinct, with petiolar area large, 
occupying apical third and centrally carinate. Abdomen black with the 
segments narrowly white-margined, more broadly laterally ; basal segment 
somewhat broad and long, sulcate ; venter whitish throughout. Legs red, 
with all the coxae pale ; hind tarsi and tibiae black, the latter internally 
whitish basally. Wings with stigma infuscate, tegulae whitish ; nervellus 
antefurcal. Length, 6é—9 mm. 
A variable species, with the thorax generally broadly red ; the 9 some- 
times has the cheeks white-marked, the mesonotum and scutellum not 
rarely entirely red (as figured by Jurine and Voll.) or with humeral and 
lateral-scutellar marks whitish ; occasionally the whole mesonotum is 
nearly entirely black ; the g may have the face and lower frontal orbits, 
with the anterior coxae and trochanters, white and the mesosternum tri- 
coloured. The synonymy of Jurine’s names was worked out in their 
‘Ueber die Typen zu Jurine’s Werk ” by Frei-Gessner, Kohl and Kriech- 
baumer in 1882. 
It differs from JZ. formosus in its emarginate clypeus and stouter con- 
formation. In Scandinavia the male is said to be much the scarcer sex, 
which appears also true of Britain. 
On the Continent it is recorded from Silesia, Austria, Lapland, Sweden, 
France, Holland, and Belgium in May, July and September. It has fre- 
quently been bred: from NMematus (Pteronus) salicis and raised by Brischke 
on 20th April from Nema/us galls on wild rose, says Ratzeburg ; Vollen- 
hoven saw it emerge from a Vema/us gall on sallow, doubtfully referred to 
Pontania gallicola by Gaulle ; Giraud in 1877 again bred it from ematus 
salicis, adding the fossor Cemonus (Pemphredon) unicolor and the Dipterno 
Lipara lucens, a very improbable host, as is remarked by Fitch (Entom. 
1880, p. 257), in recording the present species bred by Weston and him- 
self in July, 1879, from galls of Cynips Kollart, in which “ it was probably 
parasitic on Harpiphorus lepidus.” Yor the third or fourth time, Bignell 
(Entom. 1885, p. 152) bred it from sawfly galls on Salix caprea on roth 
September, 1884, in Devon. Dalla Torre credits Westwood with the 
statement that it preys upon Wema/us gallicola. 
