Pimphu] BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. 97 



28. arctica, Zelt. 



Pimpla arctica, Zett. I. L. 375, j ; Holmgr. Sv. Ak. Handl. 1860, n. 10. p. 19 ; 

 Thorns. O. E. xiii. 1408, <? ? . P. laponica. Thorns, lib. cit. viii. 746 [nee Zett). 

 P. spuria, Schm, Zool. Jahrh. 1888, p. 477 {nee Grav.). 



Head very sliort and strongly contracted behind the eyes ; frons and 

 face somewhat nitidulous, the former transversely subrugulose, the latter 

 shallowlv punctate ; palpi piceous. Antennae long and slender ; filiform. 

 Thorax black ; mesonotum shining, finely and shallowly punctate ; meso- 

 pleurae finely and diftusely punctate, subrugose below ; metathorax strongly 

 rugose-punctate with the areola apically entire and laterally distinctly 

 carinate ; petiolar area basally rugose, apically nitidulous ; metapleurae 

 closely striate ; spiracles elongate. Scutellum immaculate. Abdomen 

 closely and coarsely punctate basally, more finely towards the nitidulous 

 anus ; tubercles obsolete ; apices of the segments somewhat broadly ele- 

 vated and nitidulous, the apical ones often narrowly pale ; terebra half the 

 length of the abdomen with the v'alvulae shortly pilose. Legs red with 

 the coxae black ; hind tibiae, often femora and the apices of the tarsi 

 nigrescent, with the base of their tibiae usually narrowly pale-banded. 

 Wings a little clouded with the fenestrae very distinct ; stigma nigrescent 

 with its base alwavs pale ; nervellus intercepting far above the centre. 

 Length, 9 — 15 mm. 



This species is very like P. txiimi/ia/or-diid especially its \'ariety slrigi- 

 p'ntris, but it is altogether stouter with the hind tibiae at most but nar- 

 rowly pale-banded. It might well be mistaken for a dark legged form of 

 P. instigator, from which the stronger puncturation of the whole body will 

 distinguish it. Little reliance can be placed upon the pedal colouration, 

 however, since this varies in the only two examples 1 possess. The con- 

 formation of the abdomen and very different mesosternal puncturation 

 will at once distinguish it from P. examinator. 



From P. instigator this species differs in having the face much more 

 closelv, in the centre confiuently, punctate with short grey pilosity ; palpi 

 with only the two apical joints dull piceous ; the scape more strongly 

 I)unctate beneath ; the mesopleurae not at all strigose ; the scutellum 

 finely punctate throughout ; legs black with the anterior femora, tibiae 

 and tarsi, especially beneath, more or less rufescent or stramineous ; hind 

 legs black with coxae strongly and subconfiuently punctate, and at most 

 the base of the femora ferrugineous ; areolet externally subpellucid ; inter- 

 nal cubital nervure less sinuate. 



It is an essentially northern species, seldom met with in central Europe. 

 With us there is but one record, by Harwood from Essex in the Victoria 

 History of that county. It is, however, probably not rare with us; 

 Mr. E. R. Bankes bred a female at the beginning or August, 1Q04, from 

 the pupa of some Geometer, whose larva he had found feeding on birch at 

 Corfe Castle; it emerged through the extreme capital end of the chrysalis, 

 which was entirely and irregularly excised. Mr. Blair has also kindly 

 given it to me, together with the capital half of the pupa oiOrgyia antiqua 

 still containing many eggs, from which he had bred it in the New Forest 

 on 1 8th Sept. 1905 ; he adds that " the pupa lies free within the partially 

 cleared host's pupa." I have also seen a female captured by Mr. Evans at 

 Comiston on 13th October, 1900. 



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