THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 291 



veins is 3 : 2 : i, the latter shown by the younger forms, as evidenced by 

 Saturniades, in which the more specialized Aitacincp. have only one anal 

 vein left on the hind wings. It is impossible to consider the Papilionides, 

 with only one anal vein in hind wings, as representing in any way a primi- 

 tive form of any of the Hesperiades. The reverse is, from this point of 

 view, a possibility, although rendered improbable by the different type of 

 neuration shown by the fore wings. 



I conclude that a linear sequence of the diurnals, in a catalogue or 

 otherwise, should begin with the Papilionides. The neuration of the 

 Hesperiades offers no objection to a connection with the Agaristid- 

 Noctuid stem of Dr. Dyar's Bombycides. The neuration of the Papilio- 

 nides offers such weighty objections as to render the connection unlikely 

 in the extreme. 



CLASSIFICrVTION OF THE ENTOMOPHILOUS WASPS, OR 

 THE SUPERFAMILY SPHEGOIDEA. 



BY WILLIAM H. ASHMEAD, ASSISTANT CURATOR, DIVISION OF INSECTS, 



U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



(Paper No. 5.) 

 Family XX. — Philanthidae. 



The wasps belonging in this family have a peculiar habitus quite 

 their own. The head is ahvays luider than the thorax, the front wings 

 have three cubital cells, while the abdomen, in nearly all the species, has 

 usually a strong constriction between the first and second segments, the 

 first segment being most frequently much narrowed. In only a single 

 genus, Trachypui, \\\v\g., is the abdomen distinctly peliolated. The 

 eyes are large and normal, but occasionally exhibit a slight emargination 

 within, and, more rarely, with a distinct emargination, or reniform 

 as in Trypoxylon and Fison. Most of the species have the abdomen 

 strongly punctured or punctate, and have also a constriction between all 

 the abdominal sutures, although some also have the abdomen smooth 

 and polished, and are without a constriction at the sutures. 



All of the wasps in this family are predaceous, the majority of them 

 provisioning their nests with beetles, CurcuHonidte, Buprestidce, etc., 

 although a (t\v prey upon the bees, Halictus, Andrena, etc. 



The family is dividable into two distinct groups, which I call sub- 

 families, distinguishable as follows : 



