Mesoleptus | BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 219 

Similar to WZ. vu/nerator, but stouter with antennae shorter, nervellus 
intercepted higher and coxae black; like JZ. paludicola, but with hind 
femora always black and claws longer ; but known by the structure of the 
basal segment, narrow and dark stigma, and black hind femora. 
It ranges through Germany, Italy, Sweden, Belgium and France, 
occurring in May and June. Apparently rare with us and probably 
mixed with J/. ¢rphae, from which the black stigma and hind femora 
instantly distinguish it; but found near London in June and July by 
Stephens ; as well as at Ivybridge in Devon in the middle of August, says 
Bignell. I swept a single pair (not zz cop.) near the Knight Wood Oak 
in the New Forest on 14th June, 1907, of which the male has the abdo- 
men but obscurely rufescent centrally while the second to fourth segments 
of the female are clear red. 
2. bipunctatus, Grav. 
Mesoleptus bipunctatus, Gr. I. E. ii. 54; Ste. Ill. M. vii.220, ¢. M. margin- 
atus, Bridg. Trans. Ent. Soc. 1886, p.356, ¢. Hadrodactylus bipunctatus, 
Pfank. Zeits. Hym.-Dip. 1906, p.24,¢. (?)Perilissus bipunctatus, Brisch. Schr, 
Phys. Ges. Konig. 1871, p.70, ?; Schr. Nat. Ges. Danz. 1878, p.72, ¢ 2. 
Head posteriorly subexplanate; face black with the inner orbits, cly- 
peus and mouth flavous; cheeks not short, frons rugose but slightly 
shining. Scape flavous, and flagellum testaceous, beneath. Mesonotum 
shining and punctate, with distinct notauli; mesopleurae shining, more 
rugulosely punctate below, with epicnemia entire; metathorax dull and 
rugose, with obsolete carinae. Abdomen black with third segment, 
except two discal spots, and fourth partly red; three basal segments 
rugosely punctate and dull, remainder nitidulous; basal segment subcon- 
stricted before the prominent spiracles. Anterior legs testaceous, with 
their black-marked coxae and trochanters flavous; hind legs red with 
coxae and trochanters black, apically flavous, their tarsi and apices of 
both femora and tibiae nigrescent. Stigma narrow and piceous; radix 
and tegulae flavous ; areolet entire, petiolate and suborbicular; radius api- 
cally sinuate ; nervellus opposite and intercepted hardly below its centre. 
Length, 11 mm. _ 4 only. 
Pfankuch says this species may be known by the broad head, facial 
colouration and basally dull abdomen ; he does not mention the pale dots 
beneath nor before radices. I expect Brischke’s species was entirely 
distinct. 
Gravenhorst’s two males came from Hungary and Germany; Gaulle 
records it from France, Stephens says it was “ found, but rarely, near 
London, in June”; and I possess a single example, kindly given me by 
Mr. F. C. Adams, who took it in his fly-trap at Lyndhurst in the middle 
of July, 1907. Bridgman took his insect at Brundall, near Norwich, in 
May, 1881; I think that the peculiar facial markings, position of the ner- 
vellus, etc., show it can be nothing but a somewhat dark form of the 
present species with the abdomen centrally and hind femora infuscate ; 
Dalla Torre says it has been bred by Fletcher from Lriocampa varipes, but 
I can find no confirmation of this in literature, though Ratzeburg raised 
it from Mematus ribesit (Ichn. d. Forst. iii. 122) and considered the pedal 
colouration variable. 
