2230 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. | Mesoleplus 


3. paludicola, Holmgr. 
Mesoleptus typhae, var. 5, Gr. I. E. ii. 66, ¢ (sic ¢). M. paludicola, Holmgr. 
Sv. Ak. Handl. 1854, p.68; J.c. 1855, p. 105; Brisch. Schr. Nat. Ges. Danz. 
1878, p.67, ¢ ?. Hadrodactylus paludicola, Thoms. O. E. ix. 920 et xix. 1978, 
3%. (?) Mesoleptus gracilis, Ste. Ill. M. vii. 228, ¢. 
A slender black species with the legs entirely, and abdomen mainly, 
red. Head hardly constricted posteriorly with clypeus and face flavous, 
latter often centrally black; frons finely rugose-punctate ; clypeus a 
little convex and very remotely punctate, subdiscreted ; lower mandibular 
tooth hardly the longer, cheeks not very short. Scape flavous, and 
flagellum red, at least beneath. ‘Thorax almost narrower than head, with 
pleurae subaciculately punctate and speculum smooth ; basal area and 
areola distinct, but both apically incomplete. Abdomen slender, cen- 
trally very broadly clear red; basal segment narrow and strongly 
bicarinate, with spiracles beyond its centre; second and third elongate ; 
anus of 9 compressed and white-pilose. Legs slender and red with 
apices of hind femora and tibiae sometimes, and their coxae rarely, in- 
fuscate ; anterior coxae and trochanters of @ stramineous. Stigma 
infuscate testaceous ; nervellus intercepted at or slightly below its centre. 
Length, 8—11 mm. 
It is known by the bicarinate petiole, metanotal areae and slender form. 
The legs are of variable colour, entirely fulvous in the typical form, but 
often basally infuscate, and Brischke says the hind femora are occasion- 
ally black. 
Not infrequent in marshy situations from Sweden to France. Marshall 
possessed a single specimen from Botusfleming in Cornwall; Marquand 
took it at Lands End; and Bignell captured it in early June, at Bick- 
leigh in Devon. A single female occurred to me by sweeping reeds on a 
windy day at Oulton Broad in Suffolk on 5th August, 1898, but I have 
not since met with it during several visits to the same spot. Stephens 
took his typical MZ. gracilis at Hertford in June; I have examined the 
unique female in Mus. Brit. and am inclined to consider it a small form 
of the present species, but with the abdomen more finely sculptured, the 
stigma flavous and flagellum entirely fulvous ; I find no mention of this 
insect in Marshall’s Catalogues. 
4. typhae, Fourc. 
Ichneumon typhae, Fourc. E. P. ii. 413. Mesoleptus typhae, Voll. Pinac. pl. 
xxvi. fig. 6. 
A somewhat slender species with the head a little constricted pos- 
teriorly ; face and mouth flavous; clypeus punctate and hardly discreted. 
Antennae filiform, distinctly a little longer than the body, red with the 
flavous scape black, and flagellum sometimes infuscate, above. Thorax 
immaculate black, with elongate but very superficial notauli and no pale 
callosities; metathorax not at all costate and with no areae; spiracles 
circular. Abdomen black with the central segments more or less broadly 
red, often black-marked, and the anal rarely red-margined; basal seg- 
ment with no discal carinae, not laterally margined and hardly at all 
explanate apically. Legs red, with the anterior coxae and all the tro- 
chanters flavous ; hind coxae black, femora entirely red, tibiae testaceous 
