106 Rev. T. A. Marshall's monograph of 



Perilitus formosus, Wesm., Nouv. Mem. Ac. Brux., 

 1835, p. 36, ? ; Meteorus formosus, Reinh., Berl. 

 ent. Zeits., 1862, p. 26, note, 3 ? - 



Variable ; usually black, palpi and legs testaceous ; pro- and 

 mesothorax, with the scutellum, and abdominal segments 2 — 3, 

 rufo -testaceous ; 3 fuscous spots on the mesothoracic lobes ; antennae 

 rufo-testaceous on their basal half, thence to the apex fuscous. 

 Wings hyaline; squarnulae testaceous; nervures fuscescent, be- 

 coming testaceous outwardly ; stigma large, fuscous, its inner angle 

 determinately testaceous; recurrent nervure rejected or sub- 

 rejected ; '2d cubital areolet not narrowed towards the radius. 

 Tracheal grooves distinct. Terebra somewhat shorter than the 

 abdomen. $ ? . Length, 2 — 2^ ; wings, 4 — 4£ lin. 



In varieties the mesothorax or the abdomen may be entirely 

 black or piceous, and the pectus rufo-testaceous ; or the abdomen 

 more or less piceous, and paler in the middle ; but in any case the 

 species is sufficiently declared by its structure. Head broader than 

 the thorax, hardly contracted behind the eyes. Antennae of the J 

 not much longer than \ the body, submoniliform at the apex, 

 24 — 27-jointed (according to Eeinhard even 23-jointed) ; those of 

 the $ longer than the body, filiform, 29 — 30-jointed. Metathorax 

 short, abruptly sloping, almost truncate behind, hardly excavated 

 posteriorly, reticulato-rugulose, indistinctly areated by a medial 

 carina which bifurcates at the declivity. First abdominal segment 

 irregularly striolated, with a short, margined petiole ; tubercles 

 not salient, antemedial. 



Described from 16 females, 10 males. The synonymy 

 above given is not at all doubtful, notwithstanding some 

 small discrepancies in the authors cited, due to the want 

 of sufficient examples, or to the attachment of too much 

 importance to colours. A common, solitary parasite of 

 fungivorous larvae of Coleoptera. Wesmael was the first 

 to suspect this circumstance : he received specimens 

 from Liege found among boleti, and considered it 

 probable that they came out of Orchesia micans, Panz., 

 which was common in the same locality. This has since 

 been abundantly confirmed : according to Batzeburg 

 many examples were reared from this beetle by Beissig, 

 Wissmann, and Tischbein. In my collection are six 

 specimens, the remains of a larger number, which were 

 given to me together with an Orchesia, to show from 

 what source they were bred. In Fitch's collection are 

 20 on a card, procured from a boletus on an apple-tree at 



