PTEROMALIDAE OF N.W. EUROPE 131 



Sphegigaster aculeata (Walker) 



Merismus aculeatus Walker, 1833 : 375, $ $. 



? Merismus flavicornis Haliday, 1841-1842 : v, pi. C, fig. 1, $ [nee Walker]. 



Type material. Syntypes, 4 <$, One, bearing a Waterhouse label, is selected as 

 LECTOTYPE. 



Britain, Sweden ; no doubt widely distributed in Europe. 



Biology. Reared in England from Melanagromyza lappae Lw. (K. A. Spencer). 

 Cameron (1935 : 300) recorded having reared aculeata from puparia of Agromyza 

 aeneiventris Fin. in stems of Senecio jacobaea L. ; I have not located his specimens, 

 but the record seems likely to be correct. Imagines appear in the field May-July. 



Sphegigaster intersita sp. n. 



$. Head mainly, thorax, petiole and gaster, a rather dark green or blue-green ; vertex 

 more or less, occiput, and pronotal neck bluish black. Mandibles testaceous or reddish with 

 darker teeth. Antennal scape and pedicellus black with a metallic tinge, flagellum fuscous. 

 Coxae, trochanters partly, and femora except their tips, black with a green or blue-green gloss ; 

 tibiae testaceous or reddish, paler at base and apex, sometimes slightly infuscate medially ; 

 fore tarsi fuscous, reddish basally ; mid and hind tarsi pale or whitish testaceous basally, 

 gradually darkening to brown, and to fuscous at their tips. Tegulae brown. Wings hyaline ; 

 venation testaceous, the parastigma and stigma sometimes brownish. Length 2-5 to 2-9 mm. 



Head in dorsal view 2-1 times as broad as long ; temples converging rather strongly and 

 slightly more than one third as long as the eyes ; POL i-o to 1-2 OOL. Eyes about i-6 times 

 as long as broad, separated by about 1-25 times their length. Malar space about one third 

 the length of an eye ; hollow of gena moderate-sized, extending slightly more than half way 

 towards the eye. Antennae inserted distinctly above the ventral edge of the eyes ; scape not 

 quite reaching the lower edge of the median ocellus, but its length is greater than the transverse 

 diameter, and nearly three quarters the length, of an eye ; combined length of pedicellus and 

 flagellum slightly less than the breadth of the head ; pedicellus slightly less than twice as long 

 as broad, as long as or slightly longer than the first funicular segment ; funicle proximally 

 slightly stouter than the pedicellus in profile, becoming a little stouter distad ; its first segment 

 i-2 to 1-5 times as long as broad, second quadrate to very slightly elongate, third and fourth 

 subquadrate, or fourth slightly transverse, fifth and sixth slightly transverse ; clava 1-7 to 

 i-8 times as long as broad, a little broader than the sixth funicular segment, its length about 

 equal to two and a half of the preceding funicular segments ; sensilla in one (sometimes irregular) 

 row on each segment, numerous on the claval and distal funicular segments but less so on the 

 proximal funicular segments ; hairs of flagellum slightly outstanding (about as in nigricornis 

 (Nees), Text-fig. 105). 



Pronotum as in nigricornis, the lateral angles of the collar forming blunt teeth ; on the front 

 edge of the collar there are three other rather weak teeth (a median and two sublaterals) . 

 Mesoscutum nearly twice as broad as long, moderately finely reticulate discally, finely elsewhere. 

 Scutellum as broad as long, rather flat discally, finely reticulate. Propodeum about three 

 quarters the length of the scutellum ; its median area (except the nucha) rather less finely 

 reticulate than the scutellum, especially laterally ; median carina absent, or showing at most a 

 trace. Fore wing with lower surface of costal cell with a complete row of hairs, and some 

 scattered ones in the distal third, its upper surface bare ; basal vein with three to five hairs ; 

 basal cell bare, open below ; speculum open below, the wing beyond it moderately thickly 

 haired ; marginal vein twice as long as the stigmal vein and very slightly (about i-i times) 



