British Braconidtz. 123 



26. Meteorus profligator, Hal. 



Meteorus profligator, Hal., Ent. Mag., iii., 33, ? . 

 Bracon cis, Bouche, Naturg. (1834), p. 149. 



Black ; abdominal segment 2, or all after the 1st, nigro-piceous ; 

 antennae fuscous, their base and the legs testaceous. Wings 

 hyaline ; squamulae testaceous ; nervures fuscescent ; stigma fus- 

 cous, its inner angle broadly and indeterminately pale ; recurrent 

 nervure slightly rejected; 2d cubital areolet not narrowed towards 

 the radius. First abdominal segment short ; the rest of the abdo- 

 men ovate, as broad as the thorax. Tracheal grooves obsolete. 

 Terebra nearly as long as the abdomen. J. Length, 1^; wings, 

 2i lin. 



Head large, wider than the thorax ; palpi pale. Antennae 

 filiform, shorter than the body, 20 — 21-jointed, the last 8 joints 

 subquadrate. Metathorax short, reticulato-rugulose. First abdo- 

 minal segment with a broad, short petiole, tubercles and tracheal 

 grooves obsolete ; insensibly dilated nearly from the base to the 

 apex, which is 4 times broader than the petiole, irregularly rugu- 

 lose ; extreme base of the petiole subdilated and pale. 



Haliday's descriptions of delator, vexator, profligator, 

 and jaculator are incomplete, and it is necessary to 

 possess them all, in order to determine any one with 

 certainty. The present species he compares with delator, 

 of which no specimens are now known. It is said to be 

 nearly akin to delator but smaller, with a shorter pro- 

 thorax and metathorax ; 1st abdominal segment coaretate 

 near the base, not linear; delator has 23-jointed antennae ; 

 the specimens before me have them 21-jointed, and are 

 therefore most probably profligator. 



Bignell bred eight or nine females from Cis boleti, 

 Scop., in Polyporus versicolor. Hence it may be inferred 

 with something like certainty that this is the Bracon eis 

 of Bouche, reared from the same beetle, and not M. 

 atrator, as conjectured by Nees v. Esenbeck, which is 

 much too large an insect (see sp. 14). According to 

 Bouche the parasitic maggot is oblong, rugose, white, 

 with a rounded head, and the parts of the mouth 

 blackish. Capron has taken a 2 at Shiere. 



