Pi/npln.] BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 83 



bred together, and with Hemiteles areator, from Coleophora ardeaepennella, 

 Scott, at Bexley in Kent, in July, 1898. I have a male of this species, 

 captured bv Beaumont at Blackheath, near London, in August, 1897, and 

 named Pimpla hrunnca, Brischke, bv Professor Brauns ; it appears to me 

 to differ from typical P. caloba/a in nothing but its paler abdomen, 

 certainly the femoral emargination is identical. 



21. nucum, Ratz. 



Pimpla nucuni, ka(z. Ichn. d. Forst. i. 115, ? ; Tschek, Verb. z.-b. Ges. 1868, 

 p. 446, s ? ; Voll. Pinac. pi. xxi, fig. 9, j {nee Holmgr.). P. calobata, Schra. Zool. 

 Jahrb. 1888, p. 510 et Opusc. Ichn. 1088 i ? {nee Grav.); Thorns. O.E. xiii. 1413 

 et xix. 2127, ? excl. ? . 



Head subbuccate and scarcely narrowed behind the eyes ; both sexes 

 with the palpi stramineous. Antennae twenty-two to -four jointed, black ; 

 beneath, at least basally, dull testaceous and, in ^ , scape and annellus 

 white. Thorax black with a callosity before the radix in both sexes 

 stramineous ; areola longitudinally subconcave, not laterally costate but 

 apically confluent with the petiolar region ; spiracles circular. Scutellum 

 black. Abdomen infuscate- or piceous-testaceous, rarely in $ nigre- 

 scent, of 9 subcylindrical and of ^ linear and twice longer than head 

 and thorax ; verv finely and denselv punctate ; segments darker, hardly 

 more shining and not at all elevated at their apices ; the anterior of the 

 J longer than broad ; basal segment of 9 little convex, subquadrate 

 with obsolete carinae, of ^ parallel-sided, slightly longer than the hind 

 coxae, finely margined and obsoletely canaliculate apically ; second seg- 

 ment of 9 nearly as long again as third and broader and longer than the 

 following ; terebra as long as the abdomen and metathorax combined. 

 Hind legs in both sexes with the white tibiae infuscate at the apex and 

 before the base, their tarsi infuscate with the three first joints basally 

 whitish ; J with the front femora strongly bisinuate, their tibiae arcuate, 

 the anterior legs pale flavous, the hind femora mainly fulvescent or casta- 

 neous and their coxae black, all the trochanters and apices of the anterior 

 coxae stramineous ; 9 legs fulvous with the tarsal claws basally lobate 

 and the onychium double the length of the penultimate joint. Wings with 

 stigma stramineous ; radix and tegulae in both sexes stramineous ; ner- 

 vellus intercepting below the centre. Length, 5I — 10 mm. 



Tschek does not suggest the synonymy of P. ntuum, Ratz., with P. calo- 

 bata, Cirav. (and only queries it as identical with P. nucum Holmgr. and 

 Ephialtes inanis,Grz.\.). Taschenberg and Schmiedeknecht (O.I. 1089, 

 Note i) say they cannot regard them as distinct, the latter adding that, 

 according to Thomson, P. caloba/a has a rather longer terebra, " aber- 

 gerade die BohrerUinge diflferiert bei den einzelnen Individuen sehr " and, 

 on this account, he also includes P. s/ramcntatia, Kriech., under this 

 species. Thomson, who gives (O.E. 14.13) the terebra of P. r<7/('&/A/ as 

 nearly as long as the abdomen, also says (2127) that the apical border 

 of its segments is black, distinct and broader than in P. nucum, Ratz. 

 I am strongly of opinion that Schmiedeknecht is in error in uniting 

 P. caloba/a, which has the apices of the segments elevated and nitidulous, 

 with /-*. nucum, Ratz., in which they are quite flat and hardly at all more 

 shining than the remainder of the abdomen. Thomson's ^ P. calobata 

 certainly belongs to this species, but his 9 ^^'ith its terebra shorter than 

 the abdomen must be distinct. He says that it agrees with his P. puncti- 



G2 



