SYSTEMATIC NOTES ON AND DESCRIPTIONS OF 



NORTH AMERICAN WASPS OF THE SUBFAMILY 



BRACHYCISTIINAE 



By J. R. Malloch, 



OJ the Bureau of Biological Surrey, U. S. Department of Agriculture 



In this paper are presented data obtained from a study of previ- 

 ously unidentified specimens in the collection ot the Biological Survey 

 and in the United States National Museum. This study was under- 

 taken lor the purpose ol identifying a large number of species in the 

 first-named collection wMch in their unidentified condition were of 

 little value for comparative purposes to members of the Division of 

 Food Habits Research in so iar as specific names were concerned. An 

 intensive study of the anatomy of the groups dealt with was under- 

 taken and drawings of the more important structures made by means 

 of which it may be possible to identify, at least generically, even 

 fragments of these insects such as are most frequently met with in 

 the stomach contents of birds and other insectivorous animals. In 

 this paper the illustrations deal with specific rather than group 

 charact^irs for the greater part, and where there are good figures in 

 previously published j)apers of other authors these have not been 

 duplicated. 



One of the problems facing me at the start of this work was the 

 status of the family Psammocharidae, as well as its position in the 

 scheme of classification. The structure of the prothorax has for 

 many years been considered to link this group with the Scoliidae, 

 Mutillidae, and Sapygidae rather than with the Sphecoid complex: 

 but I am not inclined to that opinion. In fact from a consideration 

 of all the anatomical details of members of these groups I lean to- 

 the opinion that in the structure of the prothorax, and even more 

 obviously in other characters both of biology and structure the 

 Psammocharidae are more closely related to Sphecoidea than to 

 Scoliidae. In a ])aper dealing with Psammocharidae I will ent^^'r 

 more into details of these relationships. 



Another problem that i^resented itself was the allocation ol the 

 genus Brachycistis. This genus has most recently been considered 

 as belonging to the same group as Myrmosa and more specifically 



No. 2604.- Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 68. Art. 3 



54:^91— 2Ct 1 1 



