INTRODUCTORY PAPERS ON ICHNEUMONID^. 225 



B. Antennas as long as, or a little longer than, the insect; hind tarsi 

 not thickened (male and female). 



a. Base of 1st segment, sometimes hack of 2nd and 3rd, generally 6th 



and 7th, hlack ; back of 4th and 5th piceous. 



Agryp. tenuicorne, 3 — 6£ lines. 



b. A line on back of 2nd segment and three apical segments of abdomen 



black. ------ 14. gracilipes, 5£ lines. 



This very characteristic genus is rich in species ; and from 

 their great similarity of coloration, together with the variability 

 of many species in size and colour, they require careful discrimi- 

 nation. Besides Gravenhorst, Wesmael's " Revue des Anomalons 

 de Belgique" (Bui. Ac. Brux., xvi., ii., 115-139), and Holmgren's 

 " Ophionidslagtet Anomalon " (Ofversigt, &c, xiv., 157-186, 

 pi. ii.) and " Monographia Ophionidum Suecire " are the authori- 

 ties to consult; but there are also many scattered descriptions. 

 Foerster's genus Agrypon is acknowledged in Marshall's catalogue, 

 but is here included with Anomalon, as the distinctive character- 

 istics are not only trivial, but frequently inconstant, the principal 

 difference being the absence of the horizontal nervure from the 

 transverse anal nervure. Wesmael rightly describes this as sub- 

 obsolete in A. clandestinum. Atrometus, Foerst., also appears to 

 be a superficial genus. Of the fourteen Anomalons and three 

 Agrypons included in Marshall's catalogue, A. capitatum, Desv., 

 is omitted, as being hardly a true Anomalon; and we know 

 nothing further than Curtis's very short and mostly colour 

 description of his A. gracilipes ; it is probably only a pale 

 variety of the common A. tenuicorne, Gr. To these are added 

 A. arquatum, Gr., A. anomelas, Gr., A. iierspicuum, Wesm., 

 A. anxium, Wesm., A. septentrionale, Holmgr., A. geniculatum, 

 Holmgr., A. cylindricum, Bridgm., and A. minutum, Bridgm. (see 

 Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1881, p. 157; 1883, p. 164; 1884, 

 pt. iii.). A. xanthopus, bellicosum, cerinops, melanobaiwm, Jibulator, 

 tenuicorne, perspicuum, and canaliculatum are well figured on 

 plates 3 and 43 of Vollenhoven's ' Pinacographia.' The species 

 of Anomalon are solitary in their parasitism, and emerge direct 

 from the pupa of their host, not spinning a separate cocoon like 

 most of the Ophionidse. They are exclusively parasitic on 

 Lepidoptera, being mostly attached to species whose larvae do not 

 spin a cocoon, as the Noctuse, Geometrse, and Tortrices. 



The following British species have been bred : — 



ENTOM. — OCTOBER, 1884. 2 G 



