British Braconidse. 
383 
forming part of a great number reared under circum- 
stances favourable to observation. They were parasites 
of an extremely abundant fly, Homalomyia canicularisj 
L. Mr. Bignell, a year or two ago, kept in a glass case 
a nest of Vespa vulgaris, L., full of dead wasps in various 
stages of growth. From their decaying bodies issued 
day after day some hundreds of the Homalomyia, accom- 
panied by a proportionate multitude of the parasites. 
These latter, being so numerous, might have been 
expected to exhibit at least some of the varieties con- 
jecturally assigned to nervosa, but I was unable to find 
any deviation from the form here adopted. This seems 
to justify the assumption that slight differences in the 
antennse, wings, etc., denote specific distinction, and 
ought not to be vaguely attributed to individual varia- 
tion. The following are divergent forms which I have 
taken at difierent times, and which I am no longer able 
to regard as varieties of nervosa, though much more 
evidence would be required in order to establish them as 
good species 
1. ? Length, | line. Antennae slender, moniliform, as long as tlie bodji 
17-jointed ; nervures pale testaceous ; 1st cubital areolet imper- 
fectly defined ; legs testaceous. A second example has the 1st 
cubital areolet plainly confounded with the 2nd, the femora and 
tips of the tibise fuscescent. 
2. $ Length, 1 line. Antennae very stout, moniliform, as long as the 
body, 18-jointed ; nervures pale ; 1st cubital areolet closed j 2nd 
abdominal segment rufous at the base. 
3. ? Length, | line. Antennae slender, moniliform, longer than the 
body, 18-jointed ; otherwise like No. 2. 
4. $ Length, | line. Antennae as in No. 3, but 19-jointed ; nervures very 
pale ; 1st cubital areolet incomplete ; radial areolet very long ; 1st 
abdominal segment rufescent. 
5. $ Length, 1 line. Like No. 4, but with 22-jointed antennae. 
6. $ Length, J line. Antennae slender, filiform, longer than the body, 
19-jointed ; wings with a dusky tint, nervures distinct, fuscescent ; 
1st cubital areolet closed ; 2nd elongate, very narrow. 
7. 5 Length, 1 line. Antennae slender, moniliform, longer than the 
body, 20-jointed; nervures pale; 1st cubital areolet closed; 2ud 
moderately long. 
8. ^ Length, 1 line. Antennae rather stout, moniliform, longer than the 
body, 21-jointed, testaceous at the base ; nervures pale ; 1st cubital 
areolet confounded with the 2nd ; abdomen rufo-castaneous with 
the 1st segment clear rufous, smooth and shining. 
9. $ Length, li line. Antennae slender, longer than the body, 23- 
jointed, the scape rafous; a punctiform fovea on the mesonotum ; 
nervures pale ; 1st cubital areolet confounded with the 2nd and 
imperfectly separated from the 1st discoidal; 1st segment rufous, 
blackish at the apex ; 2nd rufous at the base. 
10- $ ? Like nervosa, but the antennae of the ? are slender, longer than 
the body and 24-jointed ; those of the $ relatively longer, 20, 
jointed ; femora sometimes streaked with black above. 
