272 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. [ Scolobates 

SCOLOBATES, Gravenhorst. 
Gr. I. E. ii (1829), 357; Aglyphus, Gir. Ann. Soc Fr. 1871, p. 411. 
Head transverse and buccate, deeply excavate posteriorly and vertically 
emarginate ; clypeus subdiscreted and apically dentate centrally; eyes 
small and entire; mandibular teeth of subequal length. Antennae fili- - 
form, somewhat stout and distinctly longer than the body. Thorax 
nitidulous with the metanotum exareolate and its spiracles oval. Scu- 
tellum gibbulous. Abdomen subpetiolate, oblong-ovate with the basal 
segment gradually constricted basally, discally parallel-sided with spiracles 
but slightly before its centre; anus of 9 subcompressed, terebra hardly 
exserted. Legs slender; the hind ones strongly elongate and stout with 
tarsi incrassate, claws coarsely pectinate and the inner double length of 
outer calcar. Areolet wanting. 
The peculiarly stout hind legs and especially their tarsi, the laterally 
tumidulous head and elongate, thick antennae will distinguish this genus, 
so long regarded as belonging to the Ophzoninae on account of its sub- 
compressed @ anus, but nevertheless truly Tryphonidous, both on 
account of its structure and parasitism, for we must suppose Bouché’s 
observation respecting a Lepidopterous host to be an error. The Rev. 
T. A. Marshall regarded (Trans. Ent. Soc. 1872, p. 264) both the species 
he placed in this genus (Cat. Brit. Hym. 1872, 65) as doubtfully in- 
digenous. The following is now abundantly proved to be so; but S$ 
tlalicus, Grav. (I. E. ii. 362, 2), rests upon a single unlocalised example 
in Desvignes’ collection, which Kriechbaumer- (whose notes see at Ent. 
Nachr. 1877, p. 135) rightly refers to Férster’s genus Zachyporthus (Zeits. 
Hym.-Dip. 1, rgor) and not the femoral-toothed Aelometis, as is done by 
Thomson, followed by Dalla Torre, at O. E. xix. 2034. It occurs in 
August and early September in France, Germany anda 9 in Mus. Brit. 
was captured at Zante in the Ionian Isles during May, 1889. Kriech- 
baumer suggests that it may prey upon A/acrophya diversipes, Schr.* 
1. auriculatus, Fab. 
Ichneumon auriculatus, Fab. Piez. 69. ¢. Scolobates erassitarsus, Gr I. E. 
ii. 360; Ste. Illus. M. vii. 269; Blanch. Hist. Ins. iii. 310; Fonsc. Ann. Soc. 
Fr. 1849, p. 237; Kriech. Ent. Nachr. 1877, p. 134; cf. Stein, loc. cit. 1880, p. 103; 
S. auriculatus, Ratz. Ichn. d. Forst. ii.77; Holmgr. Sv. Ak. Handl. 1858, 
p.154; Tasch. Hym. Deut. 74, ¢ 2. Prionopoda Canadensis, Harr. Canad. 
Entom. 1892, p.98, ¢; cf. Davis, Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc. 1897, p. 264. 
A very smooth and nitidulous, black and red species. Head buccate, 
tumidulous and very smooth, with face sparsely punctate; mouth, face 
and the temples more or less broadly, fulvescent. Antennae longer than 
body, filiform, apically subattenuate and, at least beneath, rufescent ; 

* Since writing the above I have been delighted to find among some unnamed material a single 
pair of T. italicus which were captured by my friend Mr. F. W. L. Sladen, F.E.S., at sunset on 
14th August, 1898, probably in company, at Ripple near Dover in Kent, and shortly afterwards kindly 
presented tome. This is the second Ichneumonid he has confirmed as indigenous (c/. Ichn. Brit. 
1.5). The present insect is conspicuous among the Tryphoninae for its glittering red abdomen with 
the anus black and the ? apical segments white-banded, the curious feature of the anterior femora 
black and hind ones bright red, the hind tibiae and tarsi stout and totally black, the antennae in both 
sexes strongly setaceous and in ? centrally white-banded, the head immaculate black and the radices, 
though not tegulae, conspicuously large and pure white in both pairs of wings. It is excluded from 
Scolobates by its simple claws, and the gradual expansion from base to apex of the first segment 
places it in Mesoletides, 
