275 



INTRODUCTORY PAPERS ON ICHNEUMONID^E. 



By John B. Bridgman and Edward A. Fitch. 



No. III.— CRYPTID.^ (continued). 



We have already remarked on the unsatisfactory generic 

 divisions of the Cryptidse, and this is especially marked in the 

 very closely-allied and large genera Phygadeuon and Cryptus. It 

 is often impossible to say whether certain males belong to either 

 of these genera, the Ichneumones pneustici, or even Ichneumon 

 itself. Thomson and Taschenberg have done much to unite the 

 sexes and generically determine many species, but the latter 

 remarks, " I am still convinced that many Gravenhorstian species 

 will have to be separated from here" (Zeits. Ges. Nat., 1865, 

 p. 58) ; and Eatzeburg says, " I expect that many true Ichneu- 

 mons are still retained in Gravenhorst's Phygadeuon" (Die 

 Ichn., iii. 141). In descriptions we constantly meet with similar 

 remarks to " might be an Ichneumon, but for its exserted 

 ovipositor" {P. errator, Marsh., Ent. Mo. xMag. v. 155); this 

 shows the difficulty that would be experienced with a male speci- 

 men only : compare the remarks upon Taschenberg's P. aberrans, 

 in Trans. Ent. Soc, Lond., 1881, p. 152. 



The sixty-four British species included in Marshall's 1870 

 catalogue were increased to seventy-one in 1872, and to these we 

 have added six, viz. : — P. tarsatus, Bridgm. (see Trans. Ent. Soc, 

 Lond., 1881, p. 150), P. probus, Tasch. [1. c, p. 152), P. nanus, 

 Gr. (Entom. xiii. 53), P. fulgens, Tasch. (one female in Marshall's 

 collection from Bugbrooke, Northampton), P. speculator, Gr. (one 

 female in Marshall's collection from St. Albans), and P. Marshalli, 

 Bridgm. (two males, labelled ^'procerus, Gr., var. 2, n.sp.," in 

 Marshall's collection from Barnstaple) ; of this last species 

 Taschenberg says, *' var. 2, fehlt ! ". The first species described, 

 at Entom. xiii. 53, is P. variabilis, Gr., var., which is probably a 

 distinct species ; the second is P. semipolitus, Tasch. The 

 interesting subapterous form of P. fumator is referred to at 

 Trans. Ent. Soc, Lond., 1881, p. 151, pi. viii., figs. 6-8. An out- 

 line figure of a Phygadeuon is given in Vollenhoven's ' Schetsen ' 

 (pt. i., pi. i., fig. 18), the head and abdomen of P. (Cubocephalus) 

 fortipes are well drawn in Ratzeburg's * Ichneumonen' (vol. ii., 

 pi. i., fig. 14), and P. tarsatus is badly figured in Trans. Ent. Soc. 



