444 The Ohio Naturalist. [Vol. IX, No. 4, 



Paranysson texanus Cress. 



The following characters pertaining to this species are worthy 

 of note. The second submarginal cell is distinctly five-sided, 

 the submarginal vein being much drawn down to meet the 

 recurrents, the first recurrent being inserted near the base of 

 the cell and the second scarcely beyond the middle; the third 

 submarginal cell has a short side on the marginal. The eleventh 

 and twelfth joints of the male antennae are slightly excavated 

 beneath at base, but the apical joint is not at all excavated. 

 The retracted eighth ventral segment of the male is of a peculiar 

 form and has a deep median slit. (In N. plagiatus and N. aequa- 

 lis this segment is sinuate-emarginate and the corners are 

 rounded and not of peculiar form.) The tubercles, posterior 

 angles of mesonotum and the sides of the abdominal segments 

 are sometimes ferruginous. I have specimens from Florida 

 (W. H. Ashmead) and Missouri. Specimens of P. fuscipes Cress, 

 from Poway, Calif., (F. E. Blaisdell) indicate that that is but a 

 variety of texanus, as the legs vary from entirely black to mostly 

 red. The specimens from the Atlantic and Pacific slopes agree 

 in all their structural characters, including the form of the 

 seventh and eighth ventral segments and the claspers of the male, 

 and differ only in the more extensive yellow markings on the 

 abdomen of the western variety, a character in agreement with 

 the established rule of geographical colorational variation. Some 

 of the Californian males have a yellow mark on the sides of the 

 seventh abdominal segment. (N. plagiatus from Lake Co., 

 Calif., (O. T. Baron), likewise has more extended yellow marking 

 than the typical variety from Connecticut.) In Mr. Cresson's 

 synopsis of the species of Paranysson and Nysson the systematic 

 value of the coloration of the legs has been greatly exaggerated. 



No valid specific characters have yet been pointed out for 

 separating P. mexicanus Cress from texanus. 



Paranysson armatus Cress. 



I have a male of what appears to be this species from East 

 Tennessee (E. M. Aaron). It differs from Mr. Cresson's descrip- 

 tion only in having no yellowish spots on the third and fourth seg- 

 ments of the abdomen and in having a small median tubercle near 

 the edge of the clypeus and an angle or short median tooth 

 between the two larger teeth on the seventh abdominal segment, 

 these latter characters not being mentioned in the description of 

 armatus. It agrees with texanus in venation, in the form of the 

 antennae, in having a small tooth on mesopleura and in the pres- 

 ence of a longitudinal ridge on the face and of a longitudinal 

 tubercle on the inner fide of each posterior ocellus, and the 7th 

 and 8th ventral segments also agree; its sculpture also and colora- 

 tion afford no clear characters for distinguishing it from texanus, 



