[5] This species can be found in the following countries: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Azores, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Libya, Lithuania, Macedonia, Madeira Islands, Malta, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia & Montenegro , Slovakia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and Uzbekistan.

These wasps are often mistaken for Apechthis compunctor due to having similar size, and the males of both of the species are indistinguishable from photographs.

Its hind tibia is without a pale submedian band and the abdomen is finely mat to subpolished, usually rather closely dotted with tiny holes.

This is all part of Pimpla rufipes exploratory behaviour, and acoustic probing allow the females to find and locate prey.

The main hosts of this parasitic wasp are the large white butterfly (Pieris brassicae) and the spongy moth (Lymantria dispar).

[6] Pimpla rufipes is known to have a substantial amount of venom which is cytotoxic (causing cell death) and can paralyze its hosts.

Furthermore the venom of Pimpla rufipes has antibacterial properties to prevent bacterial entry into the host, similarly to other idiobont species.

[13] When pupae of the tomato moth are injected with venom from Pimpla rufipes, they show an increased susceptibility to the fungal entomopathogen Metarhizium anisopliae Sorokin.

This fact suggests that the venom of Pimpla rufipes may suppress the cellular immune defense mechanisms of L. oleracea.

This was shown in the experiment to be the case where "at sublethal doses venom has a potent anti-hemocyte action and can impair hemocyte-mediated immune responses.