THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



CLASSIFICATION OF THE FOSSORIAL, PREDACEOUS AND 



PARASITIC WASPS, OR THE SUPERFAMILY 



VESPOIUEA. 



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



U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



(Paper No. ii. — Continued from Vol. XXXIV., p. 291.) 

 Family XXXIV. — Sapygidie. 



The wasps belonging to this family, on account of the emarginate 

 eyes in the females, and the abdomen being usually marked with yellow or 

 white, closely resembles those in the families Myzinidce and Scoliidce, but 

 may be easily distinguished by the great difference in the legs, the middle 

 coxae being approximate, the outer face of the tibiae being smooth, 

 unarmed, without tubercles or spines, while the tarsi are without strong 

 spines or bristles, and unfitted for digging. 



The antennae, too, are different ; they are inserted much farther 

 apart, being nearer to the eye margin than to each other. The pronotum 

 is broader, abruptly truncate anteriorly, with the front angles more 

 acute, while the venation, at least in the front wings, is wholly different 

 from the venation in the Myzinidce and the Scoliidce, the stigma being 

 distinct, never small^ the marginal cell larger, lanceolate, the basal nervure 

 slightly arcuate, with the cells different. The males are easily known by 

 the unarmed hypopygium. 



In habits the species agree with those in the Trigonalidce, being 

 parasitic in the nests of wasps and bees. 



Table of Genera. 



1. Head normal, without smooth, blister-like swellings along the inner 



margin of the eyes and on the vertex ; ocelli large, distinct 2. 



Head with smooth, blister-like swellings along the inner margin of the 

 eyes and on the vertex ; ocelli small, indistinct. 



Antennae at apex similar in both sexes, the last joint in the male 



not enclosed by the penultimate (1) Eusapyga, Cresson. 



(Type E. rubripes, Cr.) 



2. Antennae dissimilar in the sexes, not filiform ; mandibles with unequal 



teeth 3. 



Antennce similar in both sexes, filiform, tapering off at apex ; mandibles 

 broad, 3-dentate, the teeth blunt, equal ; maxillary palpi 6-jointed, 



labial palpi 4-joinled (2) Polochrum, Spinola. 



(Type P. repanda, Spinola.) 



