158 



ICIIXEUMON1D.E. 



specimens (P. pocsia, Cam.) differ to only a very slight extent 

 (mainly in their duller body) from the familiar European form ; 

 in the $ , as well as in the rf , the scutellum is usually, though not 

 always, mainly ttavous, the tegulae are testaceous and the stigma, 

 in all the examples of both sexes that I have seen, is clear fulvous. 

 There can, however, remain no shadow of doubt that they are 

 conspecific. I have seen the types of both sexes of P. poesla iu 

 the British Museum ; the female lacks both antennae. 



One of the very commonest of the whole ICHNEFMOXIDJE 

 throughout Europe, it is not surprising that this species should 

 extend to the hill districts of India, though its occurrence in 

 'Ceylon is more remarkable. It is one of the first insects ever 

 described, since it is recorded under the name Musca bipilis 

 secunda by old Moufet, from the neighbourhood of Oxford as long 

 ago as 1634 (Ins. Theatr. p. 63). Its parasitism is most probably 

 confined to the Lepidoptera, as the only two records from TEX- 

 THREDIXID.I: require confirmation ; upon the former it appears 

 well-nigh omnivorous, attacking with impartiality every group 

 and family. Nearly a hundred distinct species from which it has 

 been bred are enumerated in my " Icbneumonologia Britannica " 

 (iii, pp. 92-95), where also are given details of its economy so 

 far as they were known in 1908. Its Indian hosts are at present 

 unknown, although it appears to be as common in India as in 

 Europe, and is represented in all the collections I have seen. 



103. Pimpla laothoe, Cam. 



Pimpla laothoe, Cameron, Manch. Mein. 1897, p. 22 ( $ ). 



cf $ . A black species, with the scutellum immaculate and the 

 legs mainly red. Head densely covered with fulvesceut pilositv, 

 which is especially elongate and thick below the scapes, where is 



a central nitidulous and im- 

 punctate line ; frons broadly 

 but not deeply impressed ; 

 front ocellus surrounded by 

 a furrow, continued down 

 the centre of the frons, 

 which is shallowly punctate. 

 Antenna filiform and very 

 slender, nearly as long as 

 the body and black, with all 

 the flagellar joints strongly 

 elongate. Thorax immacu- 

 late, closely punctate and 

 densely pilose ; metathorax 

 evenly declivous and late- 

 rally subcarinate, rugose and 

 Fig. 3o. Pi mnla laothoe, Cam. : 



in the centre transversely 



strigose; propleune longi- 

 tudinally strigose below and stoutly bicariuate longitudinally above; 



