On a new Species of Ephialtes (Hym., Ichneumonidae) parasitising the Codling Moth

Extract

In 1939 I dealt with two species of Ephialtes which parasitise the codling moth, Cydia pomonella, L., namely E. caudatus, Ratz., and E. crassiseta, Thoms., and showed how they differed from E. punctulatus, Ratz. (=extensor, Tasch.) with which species they had formerly been confused. During 1940, F. J. Simmonds, of the Imperial Institute of Entomology, sent to the British Museum a series of a species of Ephialtes bred from this same host in the south of France. This is a new species, and it was previously known to me only from a single female which had been bought by D. S. Wilkinson from O. Schmiedeknecht, who had incorrectly named it Pimpla roborator, F. In fact, this new species does not belong to the same species group as Ephialtes (Exeristes) roborator, F., Grav. (=Pimpla roborator, F., Schmied.), which is a well-known parasite of the European Corn Borer (Pyrausta nubilalis, Hb.) and also parasitises many other hosts.

As there has been considerable confusion in the synonymy and interpretation of E. roborator, F., it seems advisable to give notes on the relevant type specimens seen by me. It has been impossible to find the type of Ichneumon roborator, F. Gravenhorst's interpretation of this very variable species has therefore been taken. The description given by Schmiedeknecht in his Opuscula Ichneumonologica is adequate for the recognition of the female ; the male is very distinct, having a tubercle in the middle of the clypeus, a character unknown in any other described European species. Pimpla cicatricosa, Ratz., which is given by Schmiedeknecht as a synonym of P. roborator, F., is a distinct species.