A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK ICHNEUMONIDAE Of this extremely interesting family, the species of which are often large and brightly coloured, always preying upon insects of all orders, as well as upon spiders and false-scorpions, there were I,i86 different kinds known in Britain in 1872, which number had risen to 1,719 in 1901, when my paper upon the subject was read before the Entomological Society. The determination of these insects, however, is fraught with so much difficulty that the family has been almost entirely neglected in our isles, with the consequence that in Suffolk there have been but few observers. Paget, Curtis, and Rev. E. N. Bloomfield have recorded a very few of the commoner and more striking kinds ; there are one or two in the British Museum found about Lowestoft by F. Smith ; and others have been noticed by Bedwell, Tuck, and Ransom. In my Ichneumons of Britain '^ I have recorded a goodly number of the first two sub-families from the county ; and in working upon my second volume I have noticed many Cryptids ; but the remaining three sub-families are very poorly repre- sented, because, although I possess some thousands of Suffolk specimens, opportunity has not yet been found for working out the correct names of the great majority. Hence we find that but little over four hundred species can with accuracy be referred to in the following precis, which, as nothing has at present appeared upon the general subject, is dealt with in some detail. Taking the five sub-families in their usual order, we find among the Ichneumoninae Hoplis- menus alhifrom has been captured on flowers at Walberswick and Brandon ; Automalm alboguttatus from Bury St. Edmunds, in the late Mr. Alfred Beaumont's collection ; that we can include the tawny Tragus lutorim, on the strength of specimens bred from poplar hawk-moths at Yarmouth by Paget and from Delephila galii by Mr. Peek at Aldeburgh, with T. exaltatorius and Protichneumon fuscipennis on the Rev. A. H. Wratislaw's authority ; P. laminatorius is a common parasite of the elephant hawk-moth at Ipswich and Sudbury, and was once bred from the bedstraw hawk at Alde- burgh. Coelichneumon Uneator is sometimes found in the Bentley Woods, C. liocnemis at Brantham and C. castaneiventris at Ipswich and Assington ; while of the genus Stenichneumon, S. trilineatus is very often seen hibernating beneath the bark of pine and aspen trees in winter, and swept from reeds in the Southwold marshes. Cratkhneumon rufifrons is common in the Bentley Woods, Staver- ton Thicks, and Brandon ; C nigritarius was recorded from Covehithe at the end of June by Curtis and is still not rare on the undergrowth in our woods ; C. fabricator and C. annulator are abundant everywhere in the late spring, and I have found C . fiigltivus at Ipswich with the variable C. coruscator. The Rev. A. H. Wratislaw took C. Gravenhorsti near Bury St. Edmunds, and both C. lanius and C. varipes occur on low bushes in the Bentley Woods, though the latter is certainly rare there. Melan'uhneumon leucomelas has been taken by Bedwell at Oulton Broad, Flatten in Ipswich, and Beaumont near Bury ; the marsh-frequenting M, bimaculatorius was swept by Elliott at Covehithe Broad in October 1900 ; I have found M. saturatorius in the same place, as well as at Brandon, Af. perscrutator on carrot flowers at Tuddenham, and the rare M. sangtdnator once flying in the sunshine at Bentley in July. Of the genus Barlchneumon we can claim B. anator, B. vesti- gator, and B. derogatory which have been found about Bury by Mr. Tuck ; B. incubitor and B. lepidus from Tuddenham Fen in August ; B. angustulus from Copdock by Hocking, and B. albi- cinctus is common in marshy places at Ipswich and Barton Mills ; Tuck has, moreover, once captured B. hilunulatus in Finborough Park. We next come to the long and difficult typical genus Ichneumon, which comprises over fifty British kinds, and of which we only have /. xanthorius at Tostock, Bentley, and Ipswich, often at roots of Aira caapltoia in the winter; /. sarcitoriui, common at Claydon, Aldeburgh, Lowestoft, Ipswich, Barham, and Westleton, upon flowers in August and September ; a female of the very rare /. /autatorius was once found by Bedwell on the sandhills at Kessingland. I.latrator and I.subquadratus are common among grass in the winter, and the males in autumn on flower-heads ; /. mo/itorius has been found at Sproughton, Foxhall and, Paget says, commonly about Gorleston ; /. suspiciosus at Tostock, Bramford, and Henstead on Angelica blossoms, and /. extensorius is common everywhere ; but of /. primatorius only one male example has occurred to me upon the flower of Angelica sylvestris in Barnby Broad, and at the end of August 1 902, I took the first British specimen of /. gradarius (which I have since that time received from Ireland) from the same kind of flowers in Tuddenham Fen. Chasmias motatorius is abundant in grass-tufts and beneath pine bark in the winter, and its males are found on flowers in September ; the linear Limerodes arctiventris is occasionally found among marram grass and Matricaria on the coast at Lowestoft and Southwold. I have bred Ctenichneumon castigator at Ipswich in 1893, and Beaumont has obtained C.funereus from the Rev. A. H. Wratislaw's collection, found about Bury St. Edmunds. In the British Museum is an example of C. messorius from Suffolk, where C. divisorius is widely distributed and to be seen on various flowers in August. Spilichneumon occisorius occurs at roots of grass in the Bentley Woods in winter; but the " Claude Morley, F.E.S., &c., Ichneumonoloffa Britannica (2 vols. 1903 and 1907 ; vol. iii in Press). 112
