NO. 2340. TRIBE EPHIALTINI OF THE ICHNEUMONINAE—CUSHMAN. 351 



SPECIES WRONGLY INCLUDED IN ITOPLECTIS. 



Itoplectis orgyiae Ashmead, Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc, voL 23, 1896, p. 213, is an 

 Iseropus. 



Genus APECHTHIS (Foerster) Woldstedt. 



Apechthis (Foerster) Woldstedt, Verh. Naturh. Ver. preuss. RheinL, voL 25, 

 1868, p. 164; BulL Acad. Imp. Sci. St. Petersbourg, voL 10, 1877, p. 15, sepa- 

 rate. Type, Ichneumon ntfatus Gmelin. 



The original description of AiKclithis consists of the characters 

 emplo3'ed by Foerster in his generic key to distinguish it from the 

 other genera of the Pimploidae. No species were referred to the 

 genus until Woldstedt (see reference above) included two species, 

 Pimpla rufata (Gmelin) and Pimpla varicornis Fabricius. The 

 former was designated as the genotype by Viereck.^ 



From Ephialtes this genus is easily distinguished by the polished, 

 maculate face; the long second tergite; the downcurved ovipositor; 

 and the possession by all the claws in the femanle, except sometimes 

 those of the hind legs, of the basal lobe or tooth. 



The character used by Morley (Kev. Ichn., pt. 3, 1914, p. 4) to 

 separate this genus from Itoplectis and Pimpla (i. e., the posses- 

 sion by the female of basally lobate claws), will not hold as stated, 

 for most species of Itoplectis have the claws of the front tarsi lobate 

 or toothed, and some species of ApeclitJiis lack the lobate claws on 

 the hind tarsi. On this character Morley referred Itoplectis con- 

 quisitor (Say) to ApecUJiis. This species has the front claws lobed, 

 but in this respect it does not differ from Itoplectis maculator (Fabri- 

 cius), the genotype, nor from alternans (Gravenhorst) and ovalis 

 (Thomson), all three of vfhich Morley placed properly in Itoplectis. 



Judging from the rather small series of specimens available the 

 species of this genus vary in structure in much the same manner as 

 do those of Epliialtes. This variation is especially conspicuous in the 

 degree of convexity and convergence of the temples, comparative 

 length and breadth of the mesoscutum, the position and strength of 

 the propodeal carinac, and the sculpture of the tergites. Variation 

 in color is even more marked than in Ephialtes on account of the 

 cephalic and thoracic maculation, especially of the males. In some 

 of the North American species the color of the hind legs varies from 

 black and white to brownish and yellowish; in the tarsi of some speci- 

 mens the light color predominates, the dark being confined to a nar- 

 row apical annulus on each joint; while in others the dark color oc- 

 cupies all but the basal and ventral portion of the first joint. The 

 tegulae may vary within a species from white to nearly black. The 

 face in the male varies from entirely yellow to more or less brown or 

 black marked. The mesoscutal markings vary from entirely absent 

 to broad and conspicuous. 



I Bull. S3, U. S. Nat. Mus., 1914, p. 13. 



