228 G. E. J. NIXON 



S. Africa : Cape Province, Katberg, 4,000 ft., xii.1932, 1 $, the TYPE, x.1932, 

 2 $$, George, 15-17. xi.1921, 1 $ ; Natal, Van Reenen, Drakensberg, xi.1926, 2 $$, 

 (all R. E. Turner). 



Type in the British Museum (Nat. Hist.). 



Hypomicrogaster suffolciensis (Morley) comb. n. 

 Microgaster suffolciensis Morley, 1902 : 4, $ [not $]. 



This species is essentially characterized by its broad stigma and on this feature 

 alone differs from all the other species I have included in the group. 



$. Colour very variable. British examples have the thorax entirely black with the gaster 

 broadly reddish-yellow along each side. In the Mediterranean region more brightly coloured 

 forms occur ; two out of four females from Cyprus have the head black, the mesoscutum entirely 

 red and the gaster almost entirely red ; a third female is coloured like British specimens and a 

 fourth is almost entirely black with the hind femur also black but showing a paler flush along 

 each side ; in all other examples, no matter from where, the hind femur is entirely reddish-yellow. 

 A single female from Oran (in coll. Granger, Paris) has the thorax almost entirely red, there being 

 slight darkening only on mesosternum, posterior part of mesopleurum and along middle of 

 propodeum. The species is constant in having the hind tarsal segments basally annulated with 

 yellow ; this is a distinct feature of complementary value. 



Antenna almost as long as the body, tapering slightly towards apex with the preapical segment 

 fully one and one third times longer than wide. Distance between the posterior ocelli nearly 

 twice the diameter of the median ocellus. 



Mesoscutum in front with a fine, indistinct punctation ; over its greater, posterior part, 

 smooth-looking and virtually impunctate. The two fields of the propodeum highly polished. 

 Stigma of fore wing (Text-fig. 271) ; 1st abscissa of the discoideus fully as long as the 2nd ; vannal 

 lobe beyond its widest part with a hardly noticeable fringe of minute hairs. Hind spurs whitish, 

 the inner one reaching slightly beyond the middle of the hind basitarsus. 



Tergite 1 not very strongly narrowed behind (Text-fig. 283), its horizontal surface strongly and 

 evenly rugose. Ovipositor sheath fully as long as the hind tibia. 



Length: ca. 3-5 mm. without ovipositor. 



In describing this species, Morley evidently mistook a slightly extruded part of the 

 male genitalia for an ovipositor ; he describes this " ovipositor " as subexerted. 



Europe. Cyprus. N. Africa. Type in the British Museum (Nat. Hist.). 



Host : Bred in England by R. L. E. Ford from :- Rhodaria aurata Schiffermuller 

 (Pyralidae) on Mentha ; Nephopteryx obductella Fischer von Roslenstamm (Pyralidae). 

 The parasite, solitary, emerges from these hosts in July. 



In considering the British fauna alone, I have always been inclined to regard 

 suffolciensis as being related to Apanteles parasitellae Bouche, a species in which the 

 areolet is distinctly open and the propodeal keel at most suggested by a line of crowded, 

 vermiculate rugosities, but which in all other respects resembles suffolciensis. Apan- 

 teles parasitellae bears also a close resemblance to the mycetophilus-gvoup of Apanteles 

 and possesses only the most subtle characters by which it can be excluded from that 

 group. It thus seems to be transitional between Hypomicrogaster and Apanteles 

 and its existence stresses the doubtful value of the form of the areolet as a criterion 

 for separating Apanteles from most of the other microgasterine genera. I do not, 

 however, really think that the mycetophihis-gvonp of Apanteles is related through 



