HOMOCIBUS. 285 



H. tarsatorius is an abundant species throughout the Palaearctic 

 region, and may be found in woods and marshes throughout the 

 spring in Britain, as well as upon umbelliferous flowers in the 

 autumn. It is said to have been bred from such diverse hosts as 

 the larva of the Dipterous SyrpJitis balteatus, L., the Tineid moth, 

 Depressaria anyeliella, and a species of Ladybird (Cocciiiella), but 

 the two latter records are in all probability erroneous. 



202. Homocidus ornatus, Grav. 



Bassus deplcmatus, Gravenliorst, Iclm. Eur. iii, 1829, p. .'540' 



(excl. rf). 

 Bassus ornatus, Gravenliorst, op. cit. p. 341 ; Brischke, Schr. Nat. 



Ges. Danz. 1878, p. 113 (j). 

 Bassus frenator, Desvigues, Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 1862, p. 218 



(<?) 



Homoporus ornatus, Thomson, Opusc. Ent. xiv, 1890, p. 1505 ; 



Morley, Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 1905, p. 427 (rf $ ). 

 Var. Bassus deplanatus, Holmgren, Sv. Ak. Haridl. 1855, p. 362. 



A dull and coarsely punctate black species ; legs red, with the 

 hind tarsi and nearly the whole of their tibiae, except the white 

 extreme base, black ; scutellum transversely white apically ; 

 mouth and clypeus pale, flagellum rufescent beneath ; petiolar 

 carina3 parallel. 



At once known from all its allies, except H. deplanatus, by the 

 distinct ai-eolet, rugulose basal segments of the immaculate abdo- 

 men, dull black hind tibife, of which the extreme base and inner 

 side basally only are pure white, and by the petiolar cannse- 

 extending to its apex. The head is as broad as the thorax, con- 

 stricted posteriorly ; clypeus, mandibles and mouth pale, or in c? 

 with the whole face also flavons ; antennas quite tiliform, with, 

 the flagellum distinctly rufescent beneath ; metathorax subrugose,. 

 with the basal and petiolar areae more or less distinctly indicated, 

 though never entire ; wings with the areolet complete, small and 

 subpetiolate ; abdomen deplanate and apically obtuse ; basal seg- 

 ment with two strong and parallel carinaa to apex of the quadrate 

 postpetiole, the second transverse and coarsely striolate, with 

 distinct thyridii ; legs stout and red. The tf aiso has mesonotal 

 humeral markings, a mesosternal lunula, the anterior coxa?, and 

 ventral plica, pale. 



Length 5-7 millim. 



PUNJAB : Kangra Valley, 4500 ffc.. x. 99 (G. C. Dudgeon). 



Type in the Breslau Mnseuir. 



This is a not very common species throughout Northern and 

 Central Europe ; in Britain I have only found it on the sea-shore, 

 though it is recorded from several inland localities. It is said to 

 prey upon species of SyrpTius, and has been, almost certainly 

 erroneously, thought to prey upon the moth, Scotoyramma trifolii 

 by Boie. A single example, differing in no way from the western, 

 form, is in the British Museum, from the Kangra Valley. 



