Oct., '08] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 363 



The Occurrence of the Remarkable Braconid Genus 

 Helorimorpha in America. 



BY CHARLES T. BRUES, Public Museum, Milwaukee. 



In 1907, Professor Otto Schmiedeknecht described a very pe- 

 culiar little species of Braconid?e to which he gave the name 

 Helorimorpha cgregia (Hym. Mitteleuropas, Jena, 1907, p. 

 523). The genus was new to science and for its reception, its 

 author established the subfamily Helorimorphinne. which he 

 placed between the Meteorinse and Leiphronin?e in the scheme 

 of classification adopted in that work. The single specimen upon 

 which Prof. Schmiedeknecht based his description seems to have 

 been the only one so far recorded, and I was therefore very 

 much surprised recently to receive from my friend Professor 

 A. L. Melander, a second specimen which represents a very 

 distinct but closely allied species collected by him some years 

 ^igo at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Like its European con- 

 gener, the American species is probably very rare, as the pres- 

 ent specimen is the only one taken during several summers 

 of active collecting in the vicinity, by both Professor Melander 

 and myself. 



It gives me great pleasure to dedicate the species to its dis- 

 coverer, in remembrance of the many entomological excursions 

 which we have taken together into the interesting territory sur- 

 rounding Woods Hole. 



Helorimorpha melanderi sp. nov. 



Female. Length 4 mm. Honey-vellow : the head, except mouthparts, 

 and the antennal flagellum black. Head seen from above, transverse, two 

 and one-half time? as wide as thick, and full behind the eves. Eyes 

 small, nearly circular, no longer than the large, broad cheeks. Front 

 strongly excavated on each side above the insertion of the antenna?, 

 the depressions separated by a strong median carina which ex'ends 

 from below the base of the antenna? nearly to the median ocellus. Ocelli 

 small, placed in a small equilateral triangle which is distinctly raised 

 and bordered by a raised line. Head margined behind on the occiput, 

 temples and cheeks. Clypeus transverse, elliptic, very broadly and 

 slightly emarginate anteriorly; mandibles long, acute, apparently with 

 a broad tooth some distance before the tip. Surface of head faintly 

 puncHilate above, very closely so below, clypcus sparsely punctate, cheeks, 

 temples and occiput smooth and polished. Antenna? i8-iointed ; scape 

 as long as the first flagellar joint, pedicel small, subglobose: flagcllar 

 .ioints gradually shortening to the ninth which is ovoid, following moni- 

 liform. Maxillary palpi 4-jointed. Entire thorax, including pleura, 

 reticulated or coarsely pitted with large, almost confluent thimble- 

 shaperl punctures. Mctathorax short, abruptly declivous behind: longi- 

 tudinally concave on the posterior slope. Abdomen Miiooth and 

 highly polished, inserted very low down between the hind coxa?, its 

 petiole long and slender, curved and dilated at the tip as in some males 

 of the Cryptinse, with a few delicate striae at the base. Remainder 



