Tribe Echthromorphini

It was considered by Townes (1940, p. 285) that the genera of the Tribe Pimplini (= Ephialtini) fall into three groups, one of these groups include the genera Xanthopimpla, Echthromorpha and Lissopimpla. Townes also points out that members of these genera, together with the genus Theronia, which constitutes another of his three groups, possesses a peculiar and unusual type of tarsal claw, which is very large and bent at right-angles near its middle, the apical half having a large pocket in its mesal side that occupies over half the length of this apical portion: the pocket is broad at the base and tapers to a fine point at the tip and is hollowed out of the claw itself and covered with a membrane. Lissopimpla, Echthromorpha and Xanthropimpla may be distinguished from other closely allied genera by their mandibles, tapering to a narrow tip, and by the lower tooth being decidedly shorter than the upper. From Saussure's genus Xanthopimpla, the two genera Lissopimpla and Echthromorpha may be distinguished by their normal mandibles (not twisted) and by the propodeum which is punctate, striate or mat and without carinae.

All the species are said to be parasitic on Lepidoptera. Clausen (1939) has shown that the males normally develop from small hosts and females from the larger hosts. It is usual for the species to over-winter in the host pupae.

Two genera are represented in the New Zealand fauna, Echthromorpha and Lissopimpla, each containing a single species. The headquarters of these genera would appear to be the Australian region, and it is probable that neither of the two species considered here are natives of this country.