114 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



Megarhyssa picea, sp. nov. 



Type and Paratypc. — M. C. Z. 9,062. Solomons: Malaita, Auki. 

 W. M. Mann. 



9. Length 19-20 mm.; ovipositor 25-30 mm. Body piceous, 

 varied to only a small extent with lighter color; cheeks and lower 

 posterior orbits fuscous; first three joints of antennae fuscous below, 

 joints 16-19 pale yellow; sides of face below, broader near clypeus, 

 yellow; clypeus, anterior legs, middle and hind femora and tibiae, 

 obscure lateral blotches near apex of first, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth 

 abdominal segments dull reddish brown. One lighter specimen has 

 the orbits yellow for a short distance above the antennae, the pos- 

 terior orbits yellow, the propodeuni and first abdominal segment dull 

 ferruginous, the legs bright ferruginous and yellow spots at the upper 

 edge of propleura, below tegula, at apex of first abdominal segment, 

 and small obscure yellow spots on the sides of segments three to six. 

 Wings brownish, paler at apex and with a blackish fascia, narrowed 

 behind, extending from the costal margin to the discoidal vein, includ- 

 ing the basal half of the radial cell and the apical half of the third 

 discoidal cell. Head fully twice as wide as thick, narrowed behind the 

 eyes, in vertical view with the temples one third as wide as the eyes; 

 cheeks but little wider than the temples; face smooth and shining; 

 clypeus with a small median acute tubercle at the middle of its lower 

 margin and another at each lower angle. Flagellar joints gradually 

 decreasing in length, the first distinctly longer than the second. Meso- 

 notum with the usual coarse transverse striations; scutellum trans- 

 versely rugose-punctate; propodeuni shining, not punctate on the 

 sides; its spiracles oval, only twice as long as broad. Propleura 

 entirely smooth; mesopleura smooth above and behind, finely punc- 

 tate in front; metapleura with small rather closel}' placed punctures. 

 Abdomen polished, without fine sculpture; petiole scarcely twice as 

 long as broad, widest at basal fourth behind which it is slightly nar- 

 rowed; second segment twice as long as the first, fully twice as long 

 as wide; third to fifth segments deeply emarginate behind. Legs 

 as usual. Wings with the submedian cell distinctly longer than the 

 median; areolet large, obliquely triangular, petiole about half the 

 height of the areolet; recurrent nervure intestitial with the second 

 transverse cubitus; cubito-discoidal vein in hind wing broken at its 

 upper fifth. 



This species is quite distinct in color from the several others known 



