British Braconidce. 195 



The variations are trifling, and depend chiefly upon 

 size, and the degree of rugosity observable upon the 

 first two abdominal segments. 



Not so common as the preceding species. Bred by 

 Bil\iii>s from Sesia culiciformis,h. ; a ? of ysly. 7iidulat or, 

 and of the largest size, from S. sijheciformis, Fab., by 

 Tugwell, at Greenwich ; according to Van Vollenhoven, 

 from S. formiciformis, Esp., and tipnliformis, Clerck. 

 Also by Scott from Depressaria angelicella, Hiib. Hali- 

 day found it in Ireland and the Hebrides, and remarks 

 that he frequently saw the $ vaulting over and settling 

 upon sand-hills inhabited by burrowing Hymenoptera. 

 A (? sent to Eatzeburg by Bouche was reputed to have 

 issued from a gall of Dryophanta folii, L. ; but here 

 some error seems probable. 



3. Macrocentrus thoracicus, Nees. 



Bracon thoracicus, Nees, Mag. Ges. Berl., 1811, p. 14 ; 

 Rogas thoracicus, Nees, Mon., i., 204; Wesm., 

 Nouv. Mem. Ac. Brux., 1835, p. 172, <? ; M. tho- 

 racicus, Hal., Ent. Mag., iii., 138 ; Eatz., Ichn. d. 

 Forst., iii., 67, c? ? . 

 Macrocentrus bicolor, Curt., Ent. Mag., i., 188, ? . 

 Elongate, slender, black ; thorax rufous, sometimes obscure 

 above. Moutli and clypeus rufous. Maxillary palpi elongate, 

 yellow. Head very transverse, 3 times broader than long. 

 Antennae ^ ? much longer than the body, very slender, 49 — 54- 

 jointed, fuscous, the 2 first joints testaceous. Prothorax black 

 above ; metathorax subrugulose, not shining, fuscescent towards 

 the base. Wings hyaline ; stigma, costa, radix, and squamulse 

 yellow ; nervures pale fuscous ; pobrachial areolet much longer 

 than the praebrachial, so that the podiscoidal becomes ^ shorter 

 than the praediscoidal. Legs elongate, slender, flavo-testaceous. 

 Abdomen linear, slender, pubescent, much longer than the head 

 and thorax ; segments 1 — 2, and base of 3, striated ; 1st deeply 

 canaliculated ; 2d finely margined as far as the middle ; 3d 

 smooth at the apex ; posterior segments of the J compressed. 

 Terebra longer than the body. ^ similar ; antennae 2| times as 

 long as the body. Length, 3 — 3^ ; wings, 6 — 7 lin. 



Not very common ; Nees v. Esenbeck captured a ? in 

 Franconia, and Curtis another in England ; Wesmael 

 possessed 4 males from Belgium, and I have a S" taken 

 in Darenth Wood, and a ? from Pre Wood, St. Albans. 



