British Braconidce. 87 



and metathorax, segment 1 at the base, 3 at the a^iex, and all the 

 following, are liable to be black or infuscated ; the segments after 

 the 4th ai'e always so ; metathorax not bidenticulate. 



Found in fir-woods in autumn, but not common. 

 Taken by Haliday in Ireland and Scotland ; in England 

 by Curtis and Dale. I have captured the ? at Birch 

 Wood, and among larches at Lidford, near Dartmoor, 

 and a <? at Niton, Isle of Wight. Bridgman has taken 

 the ? at Norwich. 



V. Rhogas, Nees. 



Nees, Act. Ac. L. C, 1818, p. 306. 



Third joint of the maxillary palpi simple. Abdomen linear or 

 somewhat obovate, sessile ; suturiform articulation distinct, creuu- 

 late ; segments 1 — 3 subequal, longitudinally carinated in the 

 middle, rugiilose or aciculated ; the remainder very short, but not 

 retracted or concealed beneath the Bd. First cubital areolet 

 receiving the recurrent nervure much before its apex ; 1st abscissa 

 of the radius shorter than the 2nd ; pobrachial areolet longer than 

 the prffibrachial, and therefore the podiscoidal shorter than the 

 praediscoidal. Anal nerviu'e not interstitial. Terebra subexserted. 



The insects of this genus manifest a peculiar economy. 

 They are solitary parasites of young lepidopterous larvae, 

 the bodies of which they do not quit at the time of pupa- 

 tion, but make their cocoons inside, protected by the in- 

 durated skins of the victims. The perfect llJiofias ulti- 

 mately escapes through a hole bored in the posterior 

 dorsal segments of the caterpillar. These facts, now 

 well established, render improbable the account given by 

 S. V. Vollenhoven of the production of li. circmnscriptus, 

 Nees, from a Loj)hynis cocoon. And Brischke's remark 

 on the breeding of another species from a Nemains is 

 perhaps also erroneous. Whatever progress in the 

 knowledge of this genus has been made since the 

 writings of Haliday and Wesmael, is due to lieinhard's 

 paper in the ' Berliner ent. Zeitschrift,' which has been 

 here followed as closely as possible. Of the seven British 

 species described by Haliday, only three {(jasterator, 

 geniculator, hicolor) retain the names which he assigned 

 to them ; while out of eight which he indicated as conti- 

 nental (Ent. Mag., iv., 104) four are now known to be 

 indigenous. R. irregularis, tristis, armahis, rittiger, 

 nigricornis, and dimidiaius are here added to the British 

 list. On the other hand, testaceus has been rejected, for 



