.\Rr. -A WASPS OP^ SUBFAMILY BRACHYCLSTIINAE MALLOCH 3 



The claws are simple; there is no stripe of fine sliort hairs on sides 

 of second abdominal tergite in the males as in Mutillidae; the fore 

 coxae possess a stridulatory area in most of the males; there is a 

 distinct marginal vein as in Scoliinae, and Eliinae, though the con- 

 nection of this vein with tlie one beliind it at apex is different in 

 Brachycistiinae from that sliown in any of the related groups (figs. 

 7-11). In Brachycistiinae the cerci are absent, or at least not 

 developed pai)illiform, in which character thej^ are similar to Scoliinae 

 and Tiphiinae, though these organs are present in Eliinae, and in 

 MutiUidae and Myrmosidae (figs. 12, 13). 



In Tiphiinae we have the same forwardly opening antennal sockets 

 as in this subfamily, but the mesosternum and metasternum differ 

 as indicated in the key presented below. 



KEY TO SUBFAMILIES OF SCOIUDAE 



1. Antennal sockets directed obliquely laterad because of an abnormal develop- 



ment of the inner rim of each or an elevation of the intervening area; 

 females winged 2. 



Antennal sockets directed forward, no abnormal development of the inner 

 rim nor elevation of the intervening area 3. 



2. Metasternum broad and almost flat, consisting of two large, medially divided 



plates, the hind coxae widely separated Scoliinae, 



Metasternum small, consisting of two tuberculiform plates, the hind coxae 

 contiguous or subcontiguous Eliinae. 



3. Tegulae entirely covering the antitegulae; metasternum large, on same plane 



as mesosternum or almost so, between the posterior 'plates of which it 



projects deeply as a triangular wedge; females always winged Tiphiinae. 



Tegulae normal, the antitegulae fully exposed; metasternum depressed, 

 usually v/ith two erect processes in front of hind coxae, or elevated ridge 

 like on median line; females apterous Brachycistiinae. 



It appears to me that even using Ashmead's key to the families of 

 Vespoidea BracJiycistis males will run down to the vicinity of Tiphiidae 

 and not to Myrmosidae, the mid coxae being overlaid basally by the 

 posterior plates of the mesosternum and, though actually subcon- 

 tiguous, quite as much separated as are those of some males of EHs, 

 €tc. The backward extensions of tlie mesosternum are lacking in 

 the female which I assign here but the mid coxae are very widel}^ 

 separated. 



I have but little hesitation in allocating as the female of Brachy- 

 cistis the species upon which the genus Tyiyhoctes was based, peculiaris 

 Cresson. Tliis sex whicli is known to me only from a single specimen, 

 the type of inirabilis Cockerell, in the National Museum, and a])- 

 parcntly the specimen used by Ashmead in describing Typlioctcs, 

 differs from the males of BracJiycistis in having two apical spurs on 

 the mid tibia, and a longitudinal stripe of short hairs on each side 

 of the second abdominal tergite. Despite these discrepancies and 

 the lack of wings I consider that this is the female of a species of 



