1SRUES: PARASITIC HYMENOPTERA. 



67 



toward the middle and decreasing in thickness on apical third. Metathorax 

 somewhat produced behind the insertion of the hind coxae. Abdominal petiole 

 sharply thickened on the apical third; second and third segments each two- 

 thirds as long as the first, compressed; following shorter and more strongly 

 compressed. Wings with the stigma very slender, scarcely apparent; radial 

 vein inserted near its middle; radial cell long and lanceolate, reaching nearly 

 to the wing tip; transverse cubitus oblique above and strongly bowed out- 

 wardly below, meeting the cubitus barely beyond the recurrent nervure, which 

 is almost interstitial; discocubital vein not broken; submedian cell shorter 

 than the median and subdiscoidal nervure in front wing originating very near 

 the upper angle of the second discoidal cell; transverse median nervure in 

 hind wing broken near its lower third. 



Type. — P. obsoleta, sp. now 



I cannot reconcile the characters of the type species with those of 

 any described genus known to me and feel compelled to add another 

 name to the already large number of ophionine genera. The peculiar 

 curvature of the transverse cubitus and insertion of the recurrent 

 nervure place it definitely in the tribe Ophionini (including Hell- 

 wigiini) and close to Hellwigia from which it differs by the more 

 generalized form of the antennae and by its different wing venation. 



Protohellwigia obsoleta, sp. nov. (Fig. 50.) 



Length 13-17 mm. Dark colored, with hyaline wings and conspicuously 

 banded abdomen. The abdomen has a broad pale band above at the apex of 

 each segment (except the first) which occupies one-half of the surface. The 

 venter is pale, with a series of black spots laterally opposite the dark bands 

 on the dorsum. The antennae 

 are stout, lighter colored to- 

 ward the middle, with most 

 of the joints considerable 

 wider than long and not very 

 distinctly separated. The 

 body of the thorax is not 

 very well preserved in any 

 of the specimens, but there 

 seem to be distinctly defined 

 parapsidal furrows and the 



metanotum appears to be partially areola ted. Mesonotum finely punctate, 

 scutellum convexly elevated. Legs slender, the femora of the posterior pair 

 slightly thickened. Wings entirely hyaline, the stigma and veins fuscous. 



There are nine specimens before me, of unknown sex, presumably 

 females although no trace of ovipositor is preserved in any case. 



Fig. 50.- 

 Type. 



Protohellwigia obsoleta, gen. et sp. nov. 



