106 BRITISH ICHNEUMONS. [Pimpla. 



scence, which appears to be constant, since not one of the several hun- 

 dred specimens of P. macidator taken by me in the Bentley pine woods 

 possessed it ; he capture many $ $ and one 9 flying on the margin of 

 an oak wood, where the leaves were just appearing early in May, 1886, 

 at Schonberg near Gumperda. I have not taken it before July, though 

 it has been bred with us in May, and 1 have found the 9 9 at South wold 

 in salt-marshes mixed with both sexes of P. maculator. That is a distinct 

 species, however, is I consider proved by Bankes' and Chapman's 

 breeding. 



There are two forms of this species, of equal frequency in Britain, dif- 

 fering only in their circular and oval metathoracic spiracles : the latter I 

 shall term var. spiracularis {?i07).) ; it shows transition to P. ovalis, Thoms., 

 but the legs are tricoloured. 



On the Continent this species is said to be as common and widely dis- 

 tributed as P. viacidalor, with which the following hosts are doubtless 

 much mixed. It was bred by Reissig at the end of April from Cynips 

 tcrmiiialis and by Ratzeburg nearly certainly from Orchcstes querciis in Ger- 

 many ; by Brischke in Prussia from Fmiisa piufiila, Abraxas grossitlariata 

 through Limncria tricolor, Lophyriis piiii and Cidaria jiiniperata ; Giraud 

 raised it in France from Sapcrda populnca and Colcophora Giraiidi ; and it 

 is also said to prey upon Selandria bipinuiata, A'ematus vi/iiitialis, N^. salicis, 

 the Cecidomyid Asphondylia gcnistac, Ociiophyra pi/leria^ia, Elachista sapor- 

 tella and a species of Gehchia. There are no British records, since it has 

 hitherto been regarded as synonymous with the last species with us, 

 though in reality not very uncommon, especially in September. The 

 Rev. A. Thornley has bred two females from the cocoons of Zjgaena fili- 

 pendulae in Yorkshire. Mr. E. R. Bankes bred four females between the 

 end of April and the middle of May, 1905, from Clepsis rusticana, Tr., in 

 the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset ; together with a large female Limneria, like 

 O??iorga cursitans, Holmgr.* I bred one female from a Tortrix chrysalis 

 in a sallow leaf at Barnby Broad, which emerged on nth August, 1898, 

 through a circular hole exactly at the capital extremity ; I have also taken 

 it on blackthorn in the Bentley Woods in September, and both sexes on 

 windows of Monks' Soham House in July; Tuck has sent it me from 

 Aldeburgh, Newbery from Hendon in July, Charbonnier from Taunton in 

 August and Bristol in July, W. Saunders from Greenings in Surrey and 

 Butler several males from Abinger Hammer in the same county. The 

 var. spiracularis is, perhaps, more widely distributed with us ; Dr. Cassal 

 has bred it near Doncaster from a T^^T/r^r chrysalis in a curled birch leaf; 

 Rev. C. D. Ash from Colcophora curricipcnnella at Doncaster on 30th June, 



*0n 8th August, 1902, Dr. Chapman sent me lor names from Bejar, in Spain, several specimens of 

 P. alternans, differing from the British form only in the red abdomen, of which the base of the seg- 

 ments alone is more or less broadly black (var. i/ccora). Four ?? had emerged horn Pionea insti- 

 talis : five ? ? and four (^ J from Heterogynis paradoxa, Rmbr., and two ? ? which he said emerged 

 from cocoons of the Ophionid Casiitaria orbitalis, Grav., one of which he opened and found " the 

 ichneumon pupa in some iluid which was the remains of C. orbitalis " {in lit.) ; he added that he was 

 quite positive he had bred the Pimpla from the Casinaria cocoons, and thought the former entirely 

 indifferent as to whether it fed direct on the Lepidopterous larva or on a parasite previously in pos- 

 session. He expatiates (Trans. Ent. Soc. 1902, p. 728) : "Many male or apparently male cocoons 

 were collected at Piedraliita, of which some 95 per cent, produced ichneumons. These were of two 

 species. One spins an oval cocoon within that of the Heterogynis, after emerging from the larva of 

 its host, and produces C. orbitalis. In the case of the other, the Heterogynis either changes to pupa 

 or appears to die as a larva, in both cases Pimpla scanica, Vill." {recte /'. alternans, var. decora), 

 " emeiges, by cutting out a lid in the dead skin of its host. In two instances at least a Pimpla emerged 

 from a cocoon of the Casiua»tV?. As hyperparasitisin is not recorded for Pimpla (I believe) " (c/. 

 Brischke's record of LiHiiioia tricolor, supra) " and as the present species is a simple direct parasite on 

 the Heterogynis, the hyperparasitism must here be accidental ; the larva of Pimpla, finding its host 

 occupied also by a larva ol Casinaria orbitalis, solved the awkward situation by entering the body of 

 its fellow-guest, as it must have been within the Casinaria when that spun its cocoon," &c. 



