A SYNOPSIS OF BRITISH PROCTOTRYPIDiE (OXYURA) . 109 



the order of its host by breeding both sexes and a nymph during 

 October, 1915, from Coleopterous larvae, to which the parasite is 

 in this case still actually attached. On a single sunflower 

 during mid- September at dusk in Ipswich. 



6. Proctotrypes gravidator, Linn. 



Ichneumon gravidator, Linn., Syst. Nat., i, 1758, p. 565 ; 

 Oliv. Encycl. Meth., vii, 1792 {nee. Thunb.). Banchus gravidator, 

 Fab. Syst. Piez., 1804, p. 128. Codrus gravidator, Jurine, 

 Nouv. Meth, 1807, p. 309, ?; Nees, I.e., p. 354; Zett., Ins. 

 Lapp., i, 1838, p. 416. Proctotrupes gravidator, Lep. Encycl. 

 Meth., x, 1825, p. 208; Hal., I.e., p. 14, $ ? ; Thorns., I.e., xiv, 

 p. 412; Voll., I.e., p. 29, pi. xviii, fig. 3, 2 . 



The colour of this species is variable, and Haliday instances 

 examples with femora and antennae nigrescent, and others with 

 black abdomen and infuscate legs, having only base of both tarsi 

 and tibiae dark ferrugineous ; my darkest male, taken at Market 

 Easen, in Lines, during June, 1912, has nothing bat base of 

 second segment and part of tibiae dull rufescent. That this 

 species has the power of, at least occasionally, stinging, is proved 

 by W. Eollason, who wrote to me that his little daughter was 

 quite sharply stung by one in his garden at Truro on October 16th, 

 1909 ; it " caused a raised white bump, which remained for about 

 four hours." 



In sunny fields, frequent everywhere in summer; Sweden, 

 Italy (Haliday) ; all Europe to Sicily (Kieffer) ; bred from galls 

 of Cynips Kottari by Fitch ('Entom.,' xiii, p. 260), and according 

 to Vollenhoven, from the common British fungus-gnat, Boleto- 

 philafusca, etc. I have found it a not uncommon species in dry 

 places, such as the coast sand-hills and the "Breck" of N.W. 

 Suffolk ; never taken on flowers, but sometimes hiding beneath 

 Erodium cicutarium and swept from gorse ; rarely sheltering in 

 rabbit-holes. Evenly distributed through the third quarter of 

 the year from June 10th to September 27th, at Foxhall, in 1896, 

 Ipswich, Herringswell, Belstead, Kessingland, Wangford, and 

 common about Brandon at the end of June, especially so in 1918, 

 though a female was once swept from nettles at Belstead so late 

 as October 29th. Copthorne Common, Surrey (Wilson Saunders, 

 1871) ; Felden, in Herts (Piffard) ; Faversham, in Kent (Chitty) ; 

 Lichfield, in Stafford, 1917 (Lance Carr) ; Selby, in Yorks (W. J. 

 Fordham) ; apparently very rare in Notts, whence Prof. J. W. 

 Carr has sent me but one female, taken at Bulwell Hall on 

 August 17th, 1917. 



7. Proctotrypes devagator, Oliv. 



Ichneumon devagator, Oliv., Encycl. Meth., vii, 1792, p. 192. 

 I, campanulatorSF&b.^nt. Syst. Suppl., 1798, p. 227 ; Piez, p. 99. 

 Proctotrupes campanidator, Klug., Mag. Ges. Nat., l, p. 73; Noll., 



