228 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



Dr. Marx stated that he had received a new Hypochilus from 

 Colorado, sent by Mr. Titus Ulke. 



Mr. Ashmead read the following paper : 



NOTES ON THE GENUS MELITTOBIA. 

 BY WM. H. ASHMEAD. 



The genus Melittobia, in "Cresson's Synopsis," is stated to 

 have been erected by Prof. Westwood, in the Proceedings of 

 the London Entomological Society for 1849, but in looking up 

 the subject I find it was established two years earlier. In the 

 same publication for the year 1847, page xviii, is the following 

 brief note relating to it : Mr. Westwood exhibited specimens of 

 a minute but very remarkable Hymenopterous parasite belong 

 ing to the family Chalcididse, reared by the late M. Victor 

 Audouin, in the nests of mason bees, near Paris, in which the 

 antennae of the males are singularly distorted and the wings 

 almost rudimental, thus offering a strikingly opposite analogy 

 to other bee parasites, such as Stylops, Melee, and Sitaris, Mr. 

 Westwood proposed for this insect the name of Melittobia 

 Audouinii. About two years later Mr. George Newport, in one 

 of his celebrated biological contributions, ' ' The Anatomy and 

 Development of certain Chalcididse and Ichneumonidse, ' ' read 

 before the Linnsean Society of London, March 20, 1849, de 

 scribed what is evidently the same thing under the name 

 Anthophorabia retuscs reared from the cells of Anthophora re- 

 iusa, found in a dry clay bank beneath the ruins of the Roman 

 Castle at Richborough, near Sandwich in Kent. In a notice of 

 this memoir, Prof. Westwood, in the Proceedings of the London 

 Entomological Society for 1849, p. Ixv, called attention to the 

 fact that the genus Anthophorabia was identical with his Melit 

 tobia, described at the July meeting in 1847 ; that Mr. Newport 

 was present at the said meeting, heard his description read and 

 saw his types and drawings. He then follows with a full 

 generic description. 



Why this description was not published previously, in the 

 Proceedings of the Society for 1847, ^ do n t know, but I think 

 all fair-minded persons will agree with me in believing that of 

 the two names Melittobia should take precedence over An 

 thophorabia. 



The genus is a peculiarly striking one in the great dissimi 

 larity in the sexes. In the male the wings are rudimental or 

 abbreviated, the eyes are reduced to a single ocellus and the 

 antennal scape is strongly developed, gradually dilated and 

 lobed at apex ; the flagellum is very short and twisted and 

 capable of being folded beneath the dilated scape. The female, 

 on the contrary, is fully-winged with normal eyes and antennae. 



