PIMPLIDES. 83 



infumate throughout ; nervellus very strongly geniculate, opposite, 

 and intercepted below its centre. 



Length 23 millim. 



CEYLON : Ellahara, Anaradhapura (0. S. Wickwar). 



Type in the author's collection. 



Mr. O. S. Wickwar has kindly sent me a single pair of this 

 beautiful species which he has recently captured. 



Tribe PIMPLIDES. 



The members of this tribe are at once known from the whole of 

 the remainder of the ICIINEUMONID^E, including the other tribes 

 of the PiMPLUfjE, by the more or less distinct tubercles visible on 

 either side of each segment of the abdomen, rendering the surface, 

 which is also generally transversely impressed before the apex, of 

 very uneven appearance ; in some cases each segment is deeply 

 marked by a triangular impression with its base resting on the 

 posterior margin and its apex in the centre of the anterior margin. 

 The body, in the Oriental forms though not in the Palsearctic, is 

 more often brightly rufescent, flavous, and even in a few cases 

 metallic cyaneous, usually strongly punctate and often nitidulous. 

 The earlier genera comprise some of the longest of known 

 Ichneumons, though their form is so slender that in bulk they 

 must yield to apparently smaller species. None of the species are 

 small, and in the majority of cases the characters are sufficiently 

 definite, though 1 have found it difficult to discriminate some 

 genera with the requisite accuracy from the characters indicated 

 by the authors who have described them ; this defect has been to 

 a considerable extent obviated, however, by an examination of 

 Cameron's type specimens and others to which I have been so 

 fortunate as to have had access. Seventeen genera have been 

 recorded from India, and to these I have added five previously 

 described from the Palsearctic and Nearctic regions, which, with 

 three that I have found it necessary to bring forward as new, 

 constitute a total of twenty-five, not all of which appear to 

 me to be valid. This is but a tithe, probably, of those which 

 await discovery, since this branch of the Parasitica appears to be 

 well-nigh omnivorous, preying upon such diverse hosts as Diptera, 

 Coleoptera, Arachnida, Hymenoptera, and in one or two cases 

 the records of at least partially phytophagous species cannot 

 yet be refuted. The ectoparasitic habits of some of the smaller 

 kinds is of peculiar interest. 



Table of Genera of PIMPLIDES. 



1 (32) Nervellus of hind wings intercepted at 



or above its centre (opposite or post- 

 furcal). 



2 (3) Nervellus intercepted exactly in its [Ashm., p. 85. 



centre ; head strongly buccate behind . CALLIEPHIAI-TES, 



