22 ICHNEUMONIJXE. 



the usually smooth and glabrous postpetiole, its spiracles in or 

 beyond the centre and nearer to each other than to the apex 

 of the segment ; gastrocceli wanting or subobsolete ; terebra 

 nearly always elongately exserted. Legs slender, front tibiae 

 occasionally swollen. Wings rather ample, not rarely rudi- 

 mentary or wanting; areolet pentagonal, often large and rarely 

 with outer nervure wanting. 



Subfamily ICHNEUMONIN^:. 



Head generally transverse or tumidulous, more rarely sub- 

 globose ; eyes oblong and entire ; clypeus imperfectly discrete ; 

 mandibles apically narrowed, teeth usually very unequal in length. 

 Antennae filiform or setaceous, rarely subserrated, stouter in 

 female than in male. Thorax stout, longer than high, finely 

 punctate ; melathorax profusely areated, sometimes with stout 

 apophyses ; juxtacoxal areas usually entire ; spiracles linear, sub- 

 ovate or circular ; mesosternum not laterally sulcate. Abdomen 

 depressed, oblong-fusiform and petiolate ; basal segment obtusely 

 geniculate towards its apical third, its spiracles nearly always dis- 

 tinctly behind the centre and further from each other than from 

 the apex of the segment ; postpetiole often transverse, with very 

 distinct sculpture ; gastrocoeli nearly always very distinct : terebra 

 stout, concealed or but slightly exserted. Legs normal or sub- 

 incrassate ; front coxae transverse, hind ones not conical. Wings 

 normal with the areolet pentagonal, very rarely deltoid or 

 rhomboidal. 



Subfamily PIMPLIN^E. 



Unlike the Aculeata, the IciiEUMoyin^: have been so utterly 

 neglected that practically nothing was known of the Indian 

 PTMPLIN* until 1897, in spite of Smith's ' Catalogue of Indian 

 H,menoptera'of 1873. At the beginning of 1899 only eleven 

 species of PIMPLIXJE were definitely known to inhabit the Indian 

 Empire ; the only publications relative to these insects up to that 

 time being a single species each of Xylonomus and Coleocentrus de- 

 scribed by Bingham, a Poh/sphincta brought forward bv Ashuieid, 

 a Pimpla unrecognisably diagnosed by Walker in 1860,'four species 

 of the same genus enumerated by Cameron, some notes on Xan- 

 thopimpla by Van Vollenhoven in 1879, a couple of indistinguish- 

 able insects, probably referable to the OPHIONINJE, mentioned 

 from Ceylon by Motschulsky in 1863, and a few ancient species, 

 such as Sphex ntgogug, de G., Ichneumon punctator, L., and one or 

 two species described by Brulle in his general account of Hymeno- 

 ptera, all of which latter were vaguely said to have come from 

 " India " or " the Indies." 



