78 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 216 



shallow, median, longitudinal sulcus; front femur with a short, weakly 

 bisinuate, preapical lamina beneath; front tibia almost straight; hind 

 femur above with rather dense, long, fine pubescence; abdomen 

 slender, with median carinae of tergite 1 short and extending only 

 slightly beyond spiracle; tergite 1 and apices of following tergites 

 impunctate, remainder of tergites with sparse, shallow punctures 

 which are often indistinct and more or less confused with finer sculp- 

 ture; clasper small and rather short. 



Head black; scape and pedicel beneath, tegula, hind corner of 

 pronotum and a short line extending forward along upper margin, 

 whitish; thorax red with conspicuous black markings that include 

 prothorax except a narrow submarginal reddish stripe above, region 

 of bases of wings and a large spot in upper posterior comer of mesepi- 

 sternum; propodeum black except sometimes for a small reddish 

 spot on either side near apex; legs, except for reddish hind coxa, 

 mostly sordid whitish varying to very pale yellowish, with apices of 

 tarsi, especially hind tarsus, brownish; hind femur usually with pale 

 reddish suffusions on sides; hind tibia with the usual fuscous annuli 

 replaced by a small brownish spot on either side near base and a 

 brownish streak on either side at apex; tergites blackish to rufopiceous 

 with black apical margins, except the first tergite which is usually 

 entirely black. 



Female: Front wing 5.0 to 6.5 mm. long; antenna with 25 to 26 

 segments; cheek about 0.4 times breadth of base of mandible; temple 

 and thorax as in male; propodeum a little shorter than in male; 

 abdomen rather slender; tergite 1 mostly smooth except for traces of 

 coriaceous sculpture and a few indistinct punctures; tergites 2-6 with 

 numerous, large, usually distinct punctures except on apices; sheath 

 slightly shorter than abdomen; ovipositor moderately compressed 

 and with a distinct nodus, portion of upper valve beyond nodus 

 flattened or slightly concave in lateral aspect, basalmost ridges on 

 lower valve very strongly oblique. 



Color as in male except as follows: scape brownish beneath except 

 on narrow apical margin, prepectus mostly black, hind femur reddish 

 except on upper margin, abdomen beyond tergite 1 frequently with 

 tergites largely or entirely reddish except on apices. 



In his recent catalogs of the Ichneumonidae Townes (1944, 1951) 

 questioned Provancher's record of this species from Ottawa, Ont., 

 and suggested the type locality to be more probably southern Cali- 

 fornia. Recently, the writer found in the Canadian National Collec- 

 tion a recognizable but badly damaged specimen of hirticauda bearing 

 the data "Pimpla hirticauda 9, Victoria, 1885" in script (hand of 

 James Fletcher), and a printed number label "126." Circumstantial 



