2 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 75 



Kohl, and others. In that paper I pointed out, as Fox had done be- 

 fore me, that the generic name Manedula as applied to wasps must 

 be dropped because of its preoccupation in another field, and that 

 its place in Hymenoptera should be filled by the generic term Stictia 

 Illiger. Vespa slgnata Linnaeus was at that time designated as the 

 type of the genus Stictia. 



I am fully aware of the difficulties that result from the breaking up 

 of an old and long-established genus, such as the genus Monedula^ 

 into a number of new genera. But when an old genus, as is true in i 

 this case, embraces groups of species that possess characters rendering | 

 them just as distinct from one another as these groups are individ- 

 ually distinct from other long-recognized genera in the tribe, there 

 is nothing left to do but to give these gi'oups generic rank if our 

 treatment of the tribe is to be at all consistent. That the genus 

 Monedula,, as undersood by Handlirsch and others, was made up of 

 such groups was pointed out in my previous paper. One of these 

 groups is embraced in the genus Stictia Illiger, typified by Vespa 

 signata Linnaeus, and to a second group the name Stictiella was 

 given with Monedula foronosa Cresson designated as the type. For a 

 third group Burmeister's subgeneric term Hemidula was proposed 

 with Monedula sinffularis Taschenberg as the type of this genus. 

 Among tlie remaining described species not included in the three 

 genera named above, I distinguish four additional groups represented 

 by the following species: Monedula vvZpina Handlirsch, Monedula 

 chilensis Eschscholz. Monedula gravida Handlirsch, and Monedula 

 viagnifica Perty, each of which species is made the type of a new 

 genus. To this list of new genera I have added another based upon 

 a new species described in this paper under the name Selman 

 angv^tus. 



Inasmuch as I have not seen a specimen of Monedula singulnris i 

 Taschenberg and find myself unable to determine from the available \ 

 descriptions of this species just what generic characters it exhibits, 

 it is possible that one of the new genera proposed herein may prove 

 to be a synonym of Hemidula Burmeister. But from data furnished 

 me by Dr. H. Bischoff, who at my request kindly examined a female 

 of this species in the museum at Berlin, I learn that the mandibles are 

 edentate, a character possessed in this tribe only by members of the 

 genus Mic7'obembex, to which genus Monedula singularis certainly 

 does not belong. The uncertainty attached to the taxonomic position 

 of this species will doubtless remain until representatives of both 

 sexes of the species shall have been obtained. 



In making this generic revisi(m of the Bemticlni I have studied 

 with some care the various characters that have been regarded as of 

 generic value in this tribe. Of these I have found the make-up of 

 the maxillary and labial palpi of less value than that generally 



