■58 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



of the destructive dipteron Oscirius vestata as a host of S. caudatus, 

 though it will be noticed he does not actually say thaj; the 

 parasites emerged from the larvse or puparia of the Frit Fly, but 

 merely from stems of barley containing larvae. There seems, 

 therefore, a possibility that the sigalphid preyed upon some 

 coleopteron infesting barley, which hypothesis is perhaps 

 strengthened by the fact that recently large numbers of the Frit 

 Fly have been reared at various schools of agriculture, but so 

 far as I can learn no examples of S. caudatus have been obtained 

 from them, although other parasites, notably Chasmodon apterus 

 and a cynipid (species ?), have appeared in numbers. 



Eight species only are known from Britain, but no doubt 

 others will hQ discovered. S. thoracicus, Curt., an insect with the 

 thorax red and all the legs ochreous, has been added to our 

 fauna on the strength of a single female (the type) bred by 

 Curtis from Sicilian beans. As the species is said to be common 

 near Palermo and its solitary occurrence here was probably 

 accidental, it is doubtful if the name should be retained on the 

 British list. 



Of three of our species, ambiguus, Nees, luteipes, Thom., and 

 striolatus, Nees, I know nothing. On the continent luteipes has 

 been reared from Ochina hederce and Anohium rufipes, while 

 ■Striolatus is recorded from Pissodes notata. 



Pallidipes, Nees.* 



This is the Triaspis fulvipes of Haliday,t a small stout 

 species with testaceous legs, the terebra as long as thorax and 

 abdomen combined, and the antennae with 22-23 joints. Marshall, 

 Bignell and Morley appear to have had no personal knowledge 

 of the insect, which seems somewhat strange, as I have found it 

 to be far from uncommon. In the New Forest it is a very 

 frequent parasite of the larvae of Orchestes fagi, the imagines 

 emerging in June from their brown cocoons, which are formed 

 within the blisters made in beech leaves by the hosts. These 

 cocoons much resemble the puparia of certain Tachinidce minus 

 the spiracles — a fact which Marshall mentioned, noticeably those 

 of Actia reducta, Villen, which are often found within leaves 

 rolled by larvae of Tortrices. I have also reared it from the same 

 host taken in the beech plantations on the Gog Magog Hills, 

 •Cambridge, as well as from the larvae of an Orchestes on elms at 

 Coton, Cambs. Orchestes quercus is another host from which I 

 have several New Forest records. 



A hyperparasite, a species of Habrocytus, is frequently reared 

 from cocoons of S. pallidipes taken in the New Forest ; this must 

 not be confused with another insect, Tetrastichus ecus, Wlk., 



* ' Mon.,' i, p. 270. 



t 'Ent. Mag.,' iii, p. 127. 



