PTEROMALIDAE OF N.W. EUROPE 809 



Type material. Syntypes, 3 $ ; LECTOTYPE, the first specimen, bearing a 

 Waterhouse label. 



Besides the characters given in my key (see above) fuscicornis has the following : 



$. Antennal scape either entirely testaceous, or else more or less infuscate distally ; pedi- 

 cellus sometimes partly testaceous ; legs varying in colour, sometimes entirely testaceous with 

 only the hind coxae darkened proximally, sometimes having the hind- (less often the mid-) 

 coxae blackish with a metallic tinge, occasionally with the hind femora infuscate ; tegulae 

 testaceous to brown ; gaster often more or less reddish at the base ventrally. Head in dorsal 

 view (Text-fig. 667) only about 185 times as broad as long, with the temples more than one 

 third as long as the eyes and forming distinct angles posteriorly. Mandibles large, their lower 

 margin sinuate and, in its basal half, strongly reflexed. Scutellum rather more convex than in 

 lignicola, cavus, boarmiae, and braconidis. Plicae of propodeum distinctly curved. Gaster 

 hardly or only just as long as head plus thorax, 175-2 times as long as broad. 



o". Colour as in the female, but the gaster with a distinct, often large, subbasal testaceous 

 spot, which is sometimes extended to form a transverse band ; hind' coxae, often also the fore 

 coxae more or less, black with a bluish metallic tinge. Antennal scape (Text-fig. 661) somewhat 

 expanded, only 4-5-5 times as long as broad ; funicle stout, rather shorter than that of the 

 female, all its segments except the first very slightly transverse ; clava about twice as long as 

 broad ; flagellum clothed with short straight hairs. 



Britain : " near London. Isle of Wight " (Walker, 1836 : 485) ; Oxfordshire, 

 Otmoor, $<$, $$, 13. ix. 1954, 12.viii.1955, 14.viii.1955, 18. ix. 1956 (Graham) ; most of 

 these were captured on foliage of Salix fragilis L. 



Biology. Unknown ; there is a strong suggestion that the species is associated 

 with some host or hosts on Salix. Imagines Aug-Sept. 



Note. Dibrachys saltans (Ratzeburg) (=Pteromalus saltans Ratzeburg, 1852 : 

 232, <$ $) must be close to fuscicornis (Walker) through probably not identical with 

 it. The types of saltans (? Germany ; from cocoons of " Cladius uncinatus "), 

 formerly in the Ratzeburg collection in Eberswalde, are now presumably destroyed. 

 Gahan (1938 : 212) stated that in 1927 he had examined " the type " of Pteromalus 

 saltans, and in the same paper he gave some notes on its characters. His notes 

 apply well to the female of fuscicornis, with the exception of his statement that the 

 second ring joint (anellus) of saltans is subquadrate ; that of fuscicornis is very 

 distinctly transverse. He did not mention some of the other characters given here 

 in my redescription of fuscicornis, so these cannot be checked. Boucek (1965^ : 30) 

 in his key to most European species of Dibrachys, distinguishes saltans (Ratzeburg) 

 from cavus (Walker) by several characters. One of these " clypeal lobes shorter 

 and turned more backwards, therefore not well visible in facial view " does not 

 agree with those structures in fuscicornis (Walker) , which suggests that the species 

 regarded as saltans by Boucek is different from fuscicornis. The identity of saltans 

 will have to remain an open question for the present. 



Dibrachys (Dibrachys) vesparum (Ratzeburg) 



Pteromalus vesparum Ratzeburg, 1852 : 233, $. 



Type material. Syntypes (Germany : locality not specified, 30 $, reared (Reissig) 

 from a wasp nest attached to a wall) presumably destroyed. According to informa- 



