ITOPLECT1S. 169 



Genus ITOPLECTIS, Forst. 

 Itoplectis, Forster, Verb. pr. Rheinl. 1868, p. 164. 



GENOTYPE, Ichneumon maculator, V. 



This genus is so closely allied to Pimpla (s. s.) that it has for 

 long had a precarious existence and no detailed description is 

 requisite. Therefrom it may at once be known by the distinctly 

 attenuate anteuna3, elongate and recumbent thoracic pubescence, 

 and usually tricoloured hind tibiae. The clypeus is not apically 

 emarginate; nervellus intercepting always above the centre ; the 

 metathoracic spiracles always small and usually circular ; notauli 

 obsolete ; frontal orbits immaculate ; tarsal claws basallv not 

 lobate ; cheeks very shorty 



Range. Holarctic region. 



Table of Species. 



1 (4) Anterior coxae and trochanters mainly 



or entirely black. 



2 (3) Frons closely punctate ; hind tibiae tri- 



coloured alternans, Grav., p. 109. 



3 (2) Frons not punctate ; hind tibiae bi- 



colourecl orientalis, sp. n., p. 171. 



4 (1) Anterior coxae and trochanters entirely 



stramineous sikkimensis, Cam., p. 172. 



113. Itoplectis alternans, Grav. 



Pimpla alternans, Gravenhorst, Ichu. Etir. iii, p. 201 ; Ratzeburg, 

 Ichn. Forst. ii, p. 92 ; Taschenberg, Zeits. Ges. Nat. 1863, p. 06; 

 Schmiedeknecht, Zool. Jahr. 1888, p. 491 (c?$); cf. Vollen- 

 hoven, Piuac. pi. ix, tig. 8 et Kriechbaumer, Ent. Nachr. 1887, 

 p. 116. 



P. tricincta, Thomson, Op. Ent. viii, p. 748 et xiii, p. 1408 (d 2 ) 



c? . A dull black species, with short, obsolete thoracic pilosity 

 and usually tricoloured tibiae. Head immaculate, short, transverse 

 and a little narrowed behind the eyes ; face distinctly pilose and 

 closely punctate, especially in the centre ; frons deplanate, closely 

 punctate and not centrally canaliculate ; vertex narrow and later- 

 ally pubescent; palpi white or stramineous. Antennce not quite 

 filiform, slightly incrassate towards the apices, nearly as long as 

 the body, ferruginous or testaceous with the joints apically darker, 

 beneath paler with the disc-ally black scape flavous. Thorax 

 gibbulous and black, with a pale callosity before the radix ; meso- 

 notum closely and confluently punctate, with short, somewhat 

 sparse and subsetigerous pilosity, and very obsolete uotauli ; the 

 pleurae strongly nitidulous between the fine punctures ; metathorax 

 centrally glabrous throughout, with the areola basally subcostate 

 and parallel-sided, apically widened and convergent with the 

 petiolar area ; spiracles small and circular (except in my var. 

 spiracularis). Scutellum black, subdeplanate, obsoletely punctate 



