British Braconidce. 109 



Described from six females, one male, in Fitch's col- 

 lection and my own, taken near St. Albans and Leicester. 

 Found by Haliday rarely in North Ireland ; in Germany 

 once by Ruthe. Capron has taken a ? at Shiere. 



14. Meteorus atrator, Cur. 



Zele atrator, Cur., B. E., 415, 1, ? . 

 Meteorus atrator, Hal., Ent. Mag., iii., 32, ? . 

 Perilitus similator, Nees, Mon., i., 41, ? ; Wesm., 



Nouv. Mem. Ac. Brux., 1835, p. 34, <? 2 . 

 Meteorus similator, Ruthe, Berl. ent. Zeits., 1862, 



p. 33, $ 2 . 



Black ; antennae at the base, mouth, clypeus, prothorax wholly 

 or in part, and legs, testaceous ; hind legs infuscated ; 2d abdo- 

 minal segment rufo-testaceous or piceous. Wings hyaline or sub- 

 infumated ; squamulae testaceous ; stigma fuscous, hyaline at the 

 base and more narrowly at the apex, or imicolorous ; recurrent 

 nervure slightly rejected, sometimes interstitial ; 2d cubital areolet 

 broad, subquadrate. Tracheal grooves distinct. Terebra as long 

 as the abdomen and metathorax. $ J. Length, 2— 2f ; wings, 

 U— 4f lin. 



The English $ specimens correspond to the mutilated example 

 described by Curtis and Haliday ; in them the prothorax is either 

 wholly black or only testaceous at the sides ; the antenna? are 

 piceous at the base, or testaceous only on the under side of the 

 2 basal joints ; the 2d abdominal segment is rufo-piceous ; the 

 wings are not lacteo -hyaline as described by Euthe ; the hind coxae 

 are fuscous at the base, and the hind legs altogether infuscated. 

 The $ (which I have not seen) is similar, according to Ruthe, but 

 the piceous portions of the body are darker ; according to Wesmael 

 the humeral angles of the metathorax are testaceous. No doubt 

 the species varies, and a good series is required to exhibit its 

 changes completely. Head as wide as the thorax ; palpi, man- 

 dibles, and clypeus testaceous, the last broad and depressed. 

 Antennae of the 5 stout, filiform, half as long as the body, 22 — 27- 

 jointed ; those of the $ setaceous, longer than the body, 85-jointed. 

 Metathorax short, not very convex, rugulose, with traces of a 

 medial area and of a longitudinal carina. First abdominal segment 

 riniulose at the sides and apex, punctato-rugulose in the middle, 

 elongate, its apex only twice as wide as the base. Nervines of the 

 wings very tine ; cubital and anal nervures hardly visible ; one $ 

 in Fitch's collection wants the 2d intercubital in both fore wings. 



