THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 95 



CLASSIFICATION OF THE FOSSORIAL, PREDACEOUS AND 

 PARASITIC WASPS, OR THE SUPERFAMILY 



VESPOIDEA. 



BY WILLIAM H. ASHMEAD, A. M., ASSISTANT CURATOR, DIVISION OF INSECTS, 



U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



{Paper No. 13. — Continued from Vol. XXXV., p. 44 ) 

 Family XL. — Thynnid^. 



This family, although quite distinct, is closely allied to the two which 

 follow — the Myrmosidce and the Mutillidce — and it will probably be 

 difficult for the student to separate at once the wingless females from some 

 in the families mentioned. Some authorities, having been unable to find 

 good characters to separate these wasps, have classified all together as a 

 single large family under the name iMuiillidce ; but I think incorrectly so. 



The middle coxye are not contiguous, as in the Mutillidce and Myr- 

 ntosidcE, being separated, usually, by a triangular or bilobed projection of 

 the mesosternum, while the thorax in the females is also quite distinct, 

 being divided into three parts ; in the Myrmosidce the thorax is divided 

 into two parts only, while in the Mutillidce it is undivided, the pro-, meso- 

 and meta-thorax being closely united, without distinct dividing sutures. 



The males in the three families, to a certain extent, closely resemble 

 one another, and are not so easily separated, although each family has a 

 distinct habitus peculiarly its own, which one easily recognizes with prac- 

 tice, the shape of the head, the thorax and the abdomen being slightly 

 different; the genitalia armature, however, with but {^\\ exceptions, is 

 quite different in the three families. 



Many genera have been proposed for these wasps, the majority of 

 which I consider good, although Dr. von Dalla Torre, in his Catalogus 

 Hymenopterorum, has placed most of them under the genus Thynnus, 

 Fabr., causing much confusion. This arrangement throws a great many 

 with the same specific name together, and for these he has proposed new 

 specific names, which still further complicates matters, burdens our litera- 

 ture with names that will not hold, but which must be quoted, and making 

 it exceedingly difficult to keep track of 



I find the date of Guerin's Paper on this group, published in 

 Duprerry's Voyage de la Coquille, is given as 1830, whereas, although the 

 title page is so dated, it did not appear until 1839 ; it also makes certain 

 changes in synonymy necessary. 



