INTKODUCTORY PAPERS ON ICHNEUMONID.I?. 129 



them eight miles) tramp and tlie strong tea have put the sugaring 

 out of their heads. 



In the verandah, after dinner, we discuss and count our 

 captures, and we find just sho,rt of 400 insects to our two nets, 

 most of them new as captures to the veteran, and all of them of 

 interest or beauty. 



Who would not, after this, wish for " such a day's " butterfly 

 hunting in Natal. 



The Cottage, Richmond Hill, Surrey, May, 1881. 



INTi;ODUCTORY PAPERS ON ICHNEUMONID.E. 

 By John B. Bkidgman and Edwahd A. Fitch. 



No. II.— ICHNKUMONID^ (continued). 



Trogus, Panz. 



Thorax black with yellow marks, scutellum yellow, sometimes 

 some red on the thorax ; abdomen either entirely fulvous, 

 or apex more or less black ; greater part of legs fulvous ; 

 antennse not white-ringed. 



A. 2nd and 3rd ventral segments with a longitudinal fold in the 



middle. - - - - 1. lutorlus, 10 — 12 lines. 



B. The ventral fold on the 3nd segment only. 



exaltatorius, 12 — 14 lines. 



Trogus lutorlus, Fabr., is the largest and best known of 

 our British Ichneumons. It is by no means rare, being 

 frequently bred from the pupse of various Spldngiche by lepi- 

 dopterists, especially from Sphinx ligustri and Achei'ontia Atrojws. 

 Mr. R. S. Edleston records it as being ver}' destructive to 

 Smerinthus ocellatus on Chat Moss in 1838 (Entom. i. 203); we 

 have also bred it from this host, as well as from S. populi. 

 This species may be frequently captured during the summer 

 months heavily flitting — something between a fly, a jump, and a 

 buzz— along privet hedges, at all times of the day. The typical 

 T. lutorius is figured by Albin on his Plate vii., and the variety 

 with a black apex to the abdomen {T. Atropos) by Curtis on 

 Plate 234. Mr. Marshall, for some reason not expressed, did not 

 include T. exaltatorius, Panz., in his Catalogue. The species is 

 considered good by Wesmael, Holmgren, Brischke, Tischbein, 



S 



