^0 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. [Pimpla. 



of it as British (Trans. Ent. Soc. 1887, p. 376) is sufficient to establish 

 its indigenousness. He says that Champion took a single female at 

 Box Hill ; and that it may be further known from P. detrita by having the 

 abdomen a little shorter and the terebra a little longer.] 



24. ventricosa, Tschek. 



Pimpla ventricosa, Tschek, Verb. z.-b. Ges. 1871, p. 40 ; Scbra. Opusc Ichn. 

 1093, 9 . 



A black and deplanate species with unusually broad wings and no abdo- 

 minal tubercles. Head immaculate, not or only very slightly broader 

 than the thorax and not narrowed behind the entire eyes ; ocelli elevated 

 upon a plateau encircled by a depression within which is a longitudinal 

 furrow between the two posterior ocelli ; occiput emarginate ; frons gla- 

 brous, sparsely pilose and centrally canaliculate ; mandibles parallel-sided 

 with the apical teeth of equal length ; face uneven ; palpi and ligula of 9 

 testaceous, of $ stramineous. Antennae half length of body, filiform, 

 black ; beneath concolorous, or sometimes ferrugineous and basally tes- 

 taceous ; scape usually immaculate in both sexes. Thorax subdeplanate 

 with a testaceous callosity before the radix ; mesonotum nitidulous 

 and finely pilose, with in $ obsolete and in ^ distinct notauli ; meta- 

 thorax shallowly and sparsely punctate with testaceous pilosity ; areola 

 and petiolar region glabrous, former laterally subexplanate and somewhat 

 distinctly costate with the apex indeterminate ; spiracles small and circular. 

 Scutellum black and subconvex. Abdomen deeply but evenly punctate, de- 

 planate, immaculate ; basal segment of 9 not longer than, of ^ about half 

 as long again as, apically broad, laterally subrugulose with the basal exca- 

 vation extending to near the deeply punctate apex ; apices of the segments 

 broadly nitidulous but not elevated ; ventral valvulae of the ^ strongly 

 exserted ; terebra as long as the abdomen, strongly setigerous with the 

 spicula slender, apically acuminate, ferrugineous or stramineous. Legs 

 fulvous and not stout ; $ with trochanters, except sometimes base of the 

 posterior, often flavescent ; J with all the coxae black, the front femora 

 broadly emarginate beneath and their tibiae strongly arcuate ; inter- 

 mediate tibiae flavescent with apex, and a dot before the base, fulvous ; 

 hind tibiae and tarsal joints testaceous with the apices of both broadly, 

 and a band before the base of the former, nigrescent ; first joint of hind 

 tarsi setiferous beneath, with the basal half pale and the calcaria con- 

 colorous ; claws of $ basally acuminately and finely lobate. Wings ot $ 

 flavescent with the stigma luteo-fulvous and darker margined throughout, 

 or like that of J , hyaline with the stigma piceous throughout ; radix and 

 tegulae clear stramineous ; nervellus subopposite and intercepting dis- 

 tinctly a little below the centre. Length, 7^ — 8 mm. 



This species is said to be similar to P. bn'vicornis but to be larger and 

 at once known by the peculiarly broad head, which exceeds the thorax in 

 breadth. This I think, however, must be a little exaggerated since in my 

 females, which agree in every other particular, the head is certainly not 

 broader than the thorax. The $ has not before been described and diff"ers 

 from the 9 only in the directions above intimated. Both sexes are at 

 once distinguished from all others of the genus by the most remarkable 

 elevation of the ocelli, which, viewed from in front, rest like a diadem on 

 the insect's brow, as well as by the broad wings and smooth abdomen. 

 Possibly this is the species so doubtfully referred to P. viandibularis by 

 Bridgman. 



