48 TIPHIA MINUTA. 



Tiphia femorata, Shuck. Foss. Hym. 39. 1. 



St. Farg. Hym. iii. 573. 1. t. 36. f . 2 ? . 



Nyland. 4p. Boreal 19. 1. 



Wesm. Hym. Foss. Bdg. 23. 1. 



Bethylus femoratus, Panz. Faun. Germ. Krit. Revis. ii. 134 $ . 

 Tiphia villosa, Fabr. Syst. Piez. 235. 22 $ . 



Latr. Hist. Nat. xiii. 267. 



Van d. Lind. Obs. 280. 2. 

 Bethylus villosus, Panz. Faun. Germ. 98. 16. 



Female. Length 4-6^ lines. Black, shining and punctured, the 

 punctures strong, not very close, with a scattered griseous pu- 

 bescence; the wings fusco-hyaline, the tegulse and nervures 

 piceous ; the intermediate and posterior legs ferruginous, with 

 the coxae black, the tarsi piceous ; the metathorax with three 

 elevated longitudinal lines, the two lateral ones extending from 

 the base to the verge of the truncation, the intermediate line 

 not reaching the truncation. Abdomen : the extreme apex 

 rufo-piceous. 



Male. Length 3-4 lines. Entirely black ; otherwise closely 

 resembling the female, with the wings hyaline, the nervures 

 black. 



This species is very local, but extremely numerous in some 

 situations. In the month of August it has been taken in abun- 

 dance at Birch Wood, Kent. Mr. S. Stevens took a series of 

 very large examples in Devonshire, most of them 6 lines in 

 length. I have taken it at Blackwater, Hants; at Sandhurst 

 and near Windsor, also at Southend and Deal. The males pass 

 the nights enclosed in the petals of flowers ; the females I have 

 frequently found beneath dry cow-dung, and have a suspicion 

 they may be parasitic on species of Aphodius. At Lowestoft, 

 Suffolk, this species occurs in immense numbers, settling on the 

 heads of the wild carrot (Daucus Carrota) on the slopes of the 

 cliffs and on their tops. Amongst the many hundreds examined, 

 taken in different localities, I have never found a female with 

 black legs. 



2. Tiphia miimta. 



T. nigra, breviter griseo-pubescens ; tibiis apice tarsisque runs, 

 et linea intermedia metathoracis ad lineam transversam excur- 

 rente. 



Tiphia minuta, Van d. Lind. Obs. i. 12. 4. 

 Shuck. Foss. Hym. 42. 3. 

 Curtis, Brit. Ent. xiv. t. 644 $ . 



