XAXTHOPIMPLA. 109- 



basal angles of the segments, oblique ; second segment of $ 

 not longer than broad ; terebra shorter than the body. Legs- 

 stout and not elongate ; apical hind tarsal joint fully twice as 

 long as the penultimate ; claws not pectinate nor basally lobate ; 

 pulvilli often strongly elongate. Areolet entire, triangular and 

 usually subpetiolate ; first recurrent nervure of the lower wings 

 intercepted distinctly above the centre. 



Ranye. Australasia, Malay Archipelago, Japan, China, Tibet,. 

 India and Africa. 



This genus,* which was named though not described by Saussure, 

 is well represented in India, but the species appear to be in a 

 state of transition, and it is very difficult to determine between 

 varietal and specific distinctions ; nor has Cameron's lack of 

 mention of the more important structural characters in his earlier 

 papers, or his description of them in his later ones, tended to 

 render the task of naming specimens from his descriptions eassy ; 

 some of my supposed new species may be among those brought 

 forward by him, but if such be the case I have failed to identify 

 them. The mainly flavous body and explanate scutellar border 

 render this genus very conspicuously distinct. The discretion of 

 the labrum from the clypeus has hitherto been overlooked. 



That Pimpla punctator, L. (Syst. Nat. 1767, p. 935 f) and 

 Pimpla punctata, V. (Sp. Ins. 1781, p. 437) belong to the present 

 genus appears to be tolerably certain ; but to which of the modern, 

 species they are to be referred I have had until recently no idea. 

 That they are riot synonymous, as treated by Dalla Torre (Cat, 

 Hym. 1901, p. 458), is, I think, sufficiently apparent from the 

 circumstance that I'abricius described both (Systema Piezatorum, 

 1804, pp. 114 et 119). The latter considered both Linnc's species 

 as synonymous with his own P. pedator, which had all the abdominal 

 segments black-marked, whereas in P. punctator only six are so- 

 described, and P. punctata has but five with a spot on either side. 

 Van Vollenhoven has gone somewhat deeply into the matter in 

 his paper " Einige neue Arten von Pimplarien aus Ost-Indien >r 

 (Stett. Ent. Zeit. 1879, p. 143) ; but he appears to have possessed 

 insufficient material and to have been too prone to erect barely 



* Cameron (Manch. Mem. 1899, p. 163) says that Pimpla dedaior, F., 

 belongs to this section of the unrestricted genus ; this is a lapsus calami for 

 P. pedator, F. (Syst. Ent. 1775, p. 828). A J specimen of this genus is 

 figured, together with the cocoon from which, it had emerged, in the Kev. J. 

 G. Wood's " Strange Dwellings,'' p. 294 ; he says that a few only prey upon 

 each host-larva, destroying it between the periods of cocoon construction and 

 pupation, and that they themselves weave irregularly shaped, angular cocoons- 

 within that of the defunct host, which in this case was probably a moth allied 

 to Attacus atlas. 



t The following is Linnaeus' description of P. pvnctator: "I. flavus punctis 

 nigris, abdoinine sessili. Habitat^ in Indiis. Corpus flavum, magnitudine 



tus. Scutellum 

 urn 6 nigris, sen 

 _____ __ - ___. __vior. Antennae- 



i lutei puncto 1 s. 2 nigi 



