(323) 



15. Notes on South African Mutillidae (Hymenoptera) ivilk Descrip- 

 tions of New or Little Known Species. By L. PERINGUEY, D.Sc. 

 Director. 



LARGE as the number of South African Mutillidae is, the additions 

 are still on the increase. This is due to a better acquaintance with 

 the fauna of the Eastern and North-Eastern Transvaal, and es- 

 pecially of Southern Ehodesia. Very few indeed among the species 

 from the last-named locality are represented in the Cape Colony, or 

 even Natal, and those approximating them differ in the sculpture of 

 the second abdominal segment especially. 



My first paper on the South African Mutillidae (Ann. S. Afr. Mus. 

 i. 1898) was published somewhat hurriedly to avoid being fore- 

 stalled, and these preliminary descriptions were simply to ensure 

 priority with a view to the publication ultimately of a Monograph. 

 The material at my command was not as complete at this time as I 

 could have desired, hence some mistakes as to the identity of certain 

 species. Andre in his " Materiaux pour servir a la connaissance des 

 Mutillides d'Afrique," Zeitschr. i. Hym. Dipt. 1901, has criticized the 

 validity of certain species, basing his ground for doing so on identifica- 

 tion alleged to have been made by me. He certainly was justified 

 in some cases, but not in others. In my turn I have been able to 

 examine a number of species described or undoubtedly identified by 

 him, and I am able to correct certain of them which fall into 

 synonymy. Some of the sub-divisions proposed by Andre seem to 

 me to merge in some cases into each other, but they enable on the 

 whole a better grouping of the species. 



SYNONYMS. 



Dasylabroides pliyllira, $ . Pering., Ann. S. Afr. Mus. i. 1898, 



p. 82. 

 egeria, 3. Pering., Ann. S. Afr. Mus. i. 1898, 



p. 83. 



= capensis, Sauss., 3' . Pering., Ann. S. Afr. Mus. i. 1898, 



p. 85. 

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