British Braconide. 509 
reddish at the base beneath, 22-35-jointed, flagellum stout, bristly, 
composed of short cyathiform articulations, which are striolate. 
Mesothoracic sutures inchoate, broad, punctate ; middle lobe of 
the mesonotum elevated anteriorly ; an oblong fovea in front of 
the scutellum ; mesopleure rugose, with a broad furrow; meta- 
thorax short, almost truncate behind, covered with confused 
rugosities, carinate in the middle. Wings hyaline, often with an 
indeterminate brownish stain in the disk; squamule rufous ; 
stigma and nervures blackish brown ; stigma stout, triangular, 
emitting the radial nervure a little beyond the middle ; Ist inter- 
cubital nervure straight, a little longer than the 2nd abscissa ; 
pobrachial areolet of the hindwings half aslong as the prebrachial. 
Legs stout, rufous; tarsi dusky, hairy. Abdomen oboval, de- 
pressed, very shining ; Ist segment twice as broad at the extremity 
as at the base, rugulose, obtusely carinate in the middle, excavated 
at the base ; tubercles prominent, obtuse. Terebra very slightly 
exserted. dg similar; antenne longer than the body, subsetiform, 
33-50-jointed. Length, 13-31; wings, 34-7 lin. 
Var. @. Second abdominal segment rufous, black at the hind 
margin; legs paler red; wings hyaline ; terebra longer. Length, 
21; wings, 5 lin. Taken once only, in the London district. 
Haliday. 
This species is common throughout Europe, and pro- 
bably better known than most of the tribe; it was chosen 
by Latreille as the type of his genus Alysia, and is very 
indifferently figured by Panzer. The females may be 
observed, sometimes in considerable numbers, on carrion, 
excrements, and vegetable refuse, in search of dipter- 
ous maggots, in which to deposit their eggs. The sexual 
instinct attracts thither also the males; but both sexes 
likewise frequent flowers for the purpose of feeding. 
They scent the aroma of carrion at a surprising distance, 
as Lonce had occasion to observe in watching the re- 
mains of a dead rook, upon which they descended in 
constant succession, apparently from the sky, like vul- 
tures. ‘The males generally alighted on blades of grass 
close to the attractive object, as if to wait for their 
partners, without interrupting them in their unsavoury 
occupation. ‘l'hey have been reared from various mag- 
gots, as Lurilia cesar, L., Cyrtoneua stabulans, Fall., 
Hydrotza dentipes, Fab., and on one occasion recorded 
in the Ent. Monthly Mag., from the ferocious larve of 
the coleopterous Creophilus mavwillosus, L., living habitu- 
