134 KANSAS UNIVERSITY SCIENCE BULLETIN. 



Legs. (PI. XXII, fig. 5, posterior leg of female ; pi. XXVIII, 

 figs. 83 and 85, femur of male.) These are stout and spinose, 

 more so in the female than in the male. The fore legs are used 

 largely for digging. The fore and middle tibise each bear but 

 a single apical spur (calcar), while the hind tibise have two. 

 These spurs are fringed inwardly with short, stiff" hair ; those of 

 the anterior pair have the basal portion emarginate inwardly 

 and armed there with a short comb, which, cooperating with a 

 similar one in an emargination at the base of the first tarsal joint, 

 serve as antennal cleaners, the antennae being drawn between 

 them. This structure is show in figure 88, in the genus Noto- 

 gonia. Figure 89 shows this modification in Astata, which is 

 sometimes classified with the Larridse, but is perhaps more 

 allied to the Nyssonidse. Notice that the spur is here bifurcate, 

 while it is simple in all the Larridse which I have examined. 



The male of Tachytes distinct us has each fore coxa armed 

 inwardly with an elongate process, which bears some bristles 

 apically (pi. XXIII, fig. 13 H). while the fore femora of the 

 same sex are excavate on the under side near the base; these 

 conditions are good examples of secondary sexual characters, 

 and do not occur in all the species of the genus Tacliijtes. 



ABD3MEN (fig. 2). Pfopodeum (figs. 1 and 3, IT). This 

 portion is also known as the median segment, and erroneously 

 as the metathorax (in part). Inasmuch as it is the first 

 abdominal segment, the author sees no reason for calling it a 

 part of the thorax ; therefore, the word propodeum is here 

 used for that part morphologically belonging to the abdomen, 

 however much it may appear to be a portion of the thorax, 

 while what is really the second abdominal segment will in the 

 taxonomic portion of this paper be referred to as the first seg- 

 ment of the abdomen. The abdomen, including the propodeum, 

 has seven visible segments in the female and eight in the male. 

 The second segment, though tapering narrowly to the propo- 

 deum, is practically sessile; the next two segments are the 

 widest; the last one in the female has a more or less wedge- 

 shaped disc bounded laterally, except at the base, by a carina, 

 and covered with an even appressed pubescence. This surface 

 is Ivnown as the pygidium (fig. 2, pg. and 92) , and is of consid- 

 erable taxonomic importance ; it is a generic as well as a spe- 

 cific character. Beneath the pygidium is the sheathed sting. 

 The male has a smaller, blunter pygidium, while the eighth 

 ventral segment is well emarginate (fig. Ill) . 



