British Braconid^. 53 



20. Aphidius dissohUus, Haliday. 



2 Bracon dissolutus, Nees, Mag. Ges. Berl., 1811, p. 29 ; 

 A. dissolutus, Nees, Mon., i, 23, ^ $ . 



? A. resolutus, Nees, lib. cit, 24, ^ $ . 



A. dissolutiis, Hal., ^*&. cit., 105 ; Marsh., ^i&. cit., p. 583, 

 ^ ?. 



$ Black, shining ; abdomen piceous, pale at the base. Mandibles 

 ■and palpi testaceous ; the latter short, maxillary 2-jointed, sub- 

 claviform, labial consisting of a single joint. Antennae stout, black, 

 16-jointed, the 3rd joint pale. Mesothoracic furrows obsolete. 

 Wings narrow, infumated, clearer towards the base ; stigma and 

 nervures fuscous, the former narrow. Fore legs almost wholly pale 

 yellowish ; so also the 4 posterior coxae, trochanters, knees, and 

 tarsi, the rest of the legs fuscescent. Abdomen short, oval-lanceolate ; 

 1st segment short, cyathiform, contracted at the base, dilated and 

 almost rectangular posteriorly, somewhat rugulose. Terebra sub- 

 .exserted, with obtuse, black valves. ^ Antennae longer, entirely 

 black, 16-jointed, the articulations more distinct than in the $ ; 

 wings of a lighter tint ; fore femora and tibiae infuscated on the 

 outer side ; the 4 posterior infuscated, with yellowish knees and 

 tarsi ; abdomen not so distinctly pale at the base ; 1st segment less 

 dilated. Length, 1 ; exp. 2 lines. 



There are two descriptions of dissohttus, one by Nees v. 

 Esenbeck, the other by Haliday, who has assumed the 

 species of the German writer to be the same as his own. 

 The identity, however, seems doubtful for the following 

 reasons, (1) according to Nees the antennae of the $ have 

 only 14 (i.e. 13) joints ; (2) Nees is silent as to the 

 peculiarity of the palpi ; (3) the cubital nervure is de- 

 scribed as effaced at the base, reappearing under the 1st 

 cubital areolet, and then again effaced. There is nothing 

 special in this character, which is found in many more 

 species, often, I think, accidentally, and confined to the 

 individual. It may have appeared a good distinctive 

 character at a time when few species were known, but is 

 -certainly not so now. Hence the genus Lysiphlcbus of 

 Forster, formed (as the name imports) to include the 

 Aphidii with an interrupted cubital, and without regard 

 to any other character, has no certain foundation. The 

 variety indicated by Nees evidently belongs to a different 

 species ; and the A. obsoletus, Wesmael, which that author 

 jefers doubtfully to dissohttus, Nees, is nothing else than 



