pimplin.t:. 2^ 



AVheii Dalla Torre published the first part of his ' Catalogus 

 Hymenopterorum — IchueumonitUe,' however, ia 1901, a great 

 stride had ah-eady been taken, and we there tind the Indian total 

 standing at 71 species, due to contribntions bj' Dr. R. Krieger 

 and Peter Cameron, though this total must be reduced when it i» 

 remembered that Pimpla curvimaciduta = Xanthojyimpla tiyris,. 

 Pinijila 2^i'»ct<<f(»' is unrecognisable, Theronia areoIata=T. cla- 

 thrata, and liJu/ssa hipart ita= Hem ipimpla ruffosa, etc. Cameron 

 has since that time described some fifty new species, and I have 

 been enabled, in the following pages, to bring forward over fifty 

 more ; with the result that even now no more than 183 different 

 PiMPLiN.E are known throughout India. 



In his first paper deahug with Indian Pimplin.t; (Manch. Mem. 

 1897), Cameron says but a very few words respecting the distri- 

 bution of Hymenoptera in general, to the effect that they are 

 "■ but feebly represented, in fact they are almost absent in the 

 southern parts of the Indian Peninsula." Up to the time of the 

 publication of his paper upon fifteen species taken there by 

 Col. Nurse in 1907, Cameron could compile a list of but four 

 different kinds of IcnNEUMONin^ known to inhabit the Presi- 

 dency of Bombay, and even these had been described during the 

 present century. But they appear to be more numerous in 

 Ceylon, as shown by his paper on the species collected there 

 by Mr. E. Ernest Green in 1905, and are probably not uncommon 

 in the Himalayas, whence the very great majority of the Pimplid 

 records have originated. 



The PiMPLiN.E as a whole may be recognised by the tuberculate 

 or obliquely incised abdomen, though these characters fail in 

 several groups to such an extent that even Gravenhorst described 

 several of the males under the subfamily Tryphonijst.t:, and no 

 good definition has yet been published by which to distinguish 

 the males of the Tryphonin.e from those of the more smootli- 

 bodied tribes of the present subfamily. The females are readily 

 known by the sessile abdomen and exserted terebra ; the sole 

 exception occurring in the genus Banclms, which cannot, how- 

 ever, be separated in general structure far from Hvetasies, in 

 which the terebra is very distinctly exserted ; hence the Banch- 

 iDEs lead up naturally to the Tryphonin.e and, indeed, were 

 placed therein by Thomson. That the Lissonotides have any 

 close relationship with the typical Pimplides I do not for a 

 moment believe ; tlie Ac^nitides, as at present grouped 

 throughout the world, are very heterosyeneous ; and the Banch- 

 ides are admittedly aberrant wherever placed ; while tlie 

 XoRiDiuES, though related to some extent in their thoracic 

 sculpture with Ilhi/si^a, appear worth)' of ranking as a distinct 

 subfamily. 



Of the following tribes, the Pimplidks may be known at once 

 from the Lissonotides, with which alone they can be confused, 

 by their stouter and more robust conformation, with tiie abdomen 

 and thorax less cylindrical and the conspicuous rugosities or 



