12 Rev. T. A. Marshall's monoffraph of 



the 2d, and the front is deeply excavated above the 

 antennae, — characters which suffice to relegate it to 

 Donjctides. 



Forster's genus Iphiaulax, Verh. pr. Eheinl. 1862, 

 p. 234, contains a few European and many exotic forms, 

 separated from Bracon on the ground that their abdo- 

 men is marked by several oblique or transverse im- 

 pressions. It is here mentioned because I. impostor. 

 Scop., Ent. Car., 287, the B. demgrator, Fab., Piez. 

 109, a species of Southern Europe, has been wrongly 

 supposed to be British. The mistake originated in con- 

 fusing three different insects, B. denigrator, L., B. deni- 

 grator, Fab., and Proterops nigripennis, Wesm. Only 

 the last is British, and to it must be referred the figure 

 given by Curtis, B. E., Ixix, and the specimen existing 

 in the cabinet of Stephens. 



The Braconides constitute a group of great and 

 unknown extent in tropical regions, embracing the largest 

 and most highly coloured of the Ichneumones adsciti. 

 Some of these are also found in Southern and Central 

 Europe, but in our climate none of the superior forms 

 occur. The small British species have been totally 

 neglected by our writers ; the number of them is not 

 yet ascertained ; their determination is difficult ; their 

 transformations and parasitism very imperfectly under- 

 stood. The facts we have collected tend to show that 

 they infest in their earlier stages insects of several 

 different orders, Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, 

 and Diptera. Their motions are slow, and their flight 

 feeble, notwithstanding an ample provision of wings. 

 They generally lurk in shady places, resorting occa- 

 sionally, during the hours of sunshine, to umbelliferous 

 flowers, for the purpose of basking or feeding. Their 

 predominant colour is black, often diversified with rufous 

 or yellowish markings ; some, however, are almost 

 wholly testaceous. Those with dark wings uniformly 

 exhibit underneath the stigma a whitish angulated 

 streak, ending in a spot, which often renders some of 

 the nervures, and especially the 1st intercubital, de- 

 colorous. The males are not easily identified when 

 separated from thtir partners : they are usually smaller, 

 with longer antenna3, and exhibit the specific characters 

 with less distinctness. 



Nees V. Esenbeck (Mon., i., pp. 49 12G) described 

 80 European species of his genus Bracon, divided into 



