4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIOXAT, MUSEUM vol. 71 



Two females and one male from the type locality received from C. 

 M. Packard under Pasadena No. 2358 and said to have been "reared 

 from Harmolita grande material" May 7, 1923. One female from 

 Altamont, California, also received from Packard and reared fiom 

 the same host. 



MERISUS ATRISCAPUS. new species 



This strikingly colored form resembles M. flaviventris Girault, but 

 the females may be distinguished by the somewhat shorter and broader 

 abdomen, by the strongly brass-tinted mesoscutum, and by the me- 

 dian broad blackish stripe on the venter. 



Female. — Length 2.4 mm. Head broader than the thorax, about 

 three times as broad as thick antero-jDosteriorly ; occiput moderately 

 concave; ocelli in an obtuse triangle, the postocellar line a little longer 

 than the ocellocular, the latter line equal to a little more than twice 

 the greatest diameter of an ocellus; viewed from in front the head is 

 broader than high, antennae inserted only very slightly above the 

 lower eye-margins; eyes bare and rather short; cheeks rather long, 

 about three-fourths as long as the eyes; antennal depression shallow; 

 clypeal region w4th converging striae; remainder of head rather 

 strongly reticulate-punctate; scape not quite reaching to the front 

 ocellus; pedicel subequal to the ring-joints and first funicle joint com- 

 bined; ring-joints distinct but transverse; funicle joints 1 to 4 a little 

 longer than broad, joints 5 and 6 subquadrate; club conical, nearly 

 as long as the three preceding joints combined and pointed at apex. 

 Thorax rather slender; mesoscutum with shallow reticulate-punctate 

 sculpture, parapsidal grooves effaced on posterior half; scutellum 

 and axillae similarly but more finely sculptured; propodeum medially 

 sculptured nearly like the scutellum, laterally more weakly sculptured, 

 without a median carina, the lateral folds represented by a deep 

 basal fovea on either side of the middle, spiracular sulci weakly im- 

 pressed, spiracles narrow elliptical; hind tibiae at apex behind with 

 two very short spines; marginal and postmarginai veins equal, and 

 together equal to the submarginal ; stigmal slightly more than half as 

 long as postmarginai; abdomen broader than thorax and about as 

 long as thorax, ovate, acute at apex, depressed above, the apex of 

 ovipositor barely visible from above. Mesoscutum brassy; remain- 

 der of thorax, propodeum, head, and all coxae bluish black; scape 

 and pedicel concolorous with the head; apex of pedicel and entire 

 flagellum pale stramineous; legs, except coxae, stramineous with the 

 femora basally more or less tinged with brownish and the apical 

 tarsal joint blackish; wings hyaline the venation pale stramineous; 

 abdomen above pale straw-colored with the extreme base narrowly 

 blackish, the venter brownish black medially with broad lateral mar- 

 gins concolorous with the dorsum. 



