1918.! 85 



NOTES ON BRACONIDAE. XII *.— ON THE LIOPHRONINAE, 

 WITH DESCRIPTION OF A NEW BRITISH SPECIES. 



BY CLATJDE MOELEY, F.Z.S., F.E.S. 



Economic Coleopterists have not done their fair share in the 

 elucidation of this interesting group, which is at once recognized from 

 all other subfamilies of the BracQ7iidae by the strikingly convex and 

 strongly shining abdomen, whereof the basal segment is very stout 

 and subsessile, the second with its suture nearly wanting, and the apex 

 in 2 cmiously deflexed and recurved, in such a manner that the terebra 

 is directed below the venter towards the head, much as in female 

 jP7'ocfotri/2)es-s-pecies. But our knowledge of its economy is entirely 

 confined to a remark made by Haliday so long ago as 1835 (Ent. 

 Mag, ii, p. 458) : ** larva speciei cujusdam in larva boletophaga Insecti 

 Coleopteri vixerat," for no one has since that time bred material, and 

 there is no evidence that he himself had done so. Upon this Marshall 

 seems to have based his assertion (Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 1889, p. 176) that 

 •' the perfect insects frequent fungi, but their habits in the larval state 

 are en;tirely unknown " ; and, consequently, he adds (Spp. Hym. Europ. 

 1891, -p. 200) : " Pour eclaircir le mystere qui plane sur leurs premiers 

 etats, il faudrait elever en nombre les larves fongivores de tout ordre, 

 dans I'esperance d'obtenir de ces parasites obscurs ".f Thomson 

 (Opusc. Ent. XX, 1895, p. 2219) refers to no economy ; nor does 

 Keinhard's paper (Berl. Ent. Zeitschr. vi, 1862, p. 321) help us at all. 

 These are the main authorities upon this group. 



Turning to the imagines, I have had for some years a little group of 

 Braconids placed in juxtaposition, unknown and temporarily " perdu," till 

 I sent one of them to Mr. Gr. T. Lyle for his opinion. This was that it 

 probably belonged to the genus LiopJiroriy though the species escaped 

 him and he had seen nothing like it. A wrestle with Marshall's two 

 works, referred to above, satisfied me that I had before me the male 

 of LiopJiron saxo Reinh., a species not hitherto known in Britain. 

 Thomson's extremely lucid diagnosis confirmed the determination ; 

 it is : — 



i. saxo. — Niger, pedibus validis rufis, metathorace toto rugose, abdomine 

 petiolo latitudine apicali vix longicre, ore antennisque brunneis, maris nigris. 

 <S $ . Long. 2j-2| lin. — Species magna, capite pone oculos et os versus sub- 

 augustato, genis longis sulco impresso ; metathorace toto rugoso ; alls leuiter 

 fiimatis ; abdomine petiolo rugoso striato, latitudine apicali vix longicre, 



* Cf. Ent. Mo. Mag. xlv, 190y, p. 209 et Entom. xlix, 1916, p. 83. 



t Cf. also Gaulle, Cat. llym. de France, lUUS, p. 82, who gives no references. 



