N0 - 3622 STRATIOMYIDAE — JAMES 19 



Female.— Head (fig. 18) shorter proportionately than in male; 

 frons at narrowest 0.25 head width, widening to 0.40 head width at 

 vertex; frons depressed below callus but not deeply so as in the male; 

 occipital orbits well developed throughout. Frons with yellow pile. 

 Antennal flagellum longer than in male. Abdomen nearly round, not 

 more than 1.1 as long as wide, the shining area much more extensive 

 and including all of fifth and posterior half of fourth tergum, as well 

 as a broader lateral area. Ovipositor yellow. 



Distribution. — Dominica and Antigua, Lesser Antilles. 



Holotype. — d% Hillsborough Estate, Mar. 15, 1965, W. W. Wirth, 

 type no. 69523, USNM. 



Allotype. — 9, same but Mar. 13, 1965, H. E. Evans. 



Paratypes. — 58 cT cf, 20 99, same as holotype and allotype; Scfd 1 , 

 3 99, Layou River mouth, Mar. 8, 1965, Wirth; 5^^, Clarke Hall, 

 Feb. 20-28. 1965, Evans; 3 99, same, malaise trap, Mar. 8, 1965, 

 Wirth; 2 c? 1 d\ 5 99, South Chiltern, Feb. 6 and Alar. 25, 1964, H. 

 Robinson, and Dec. 8-10, 1964, P. J. Spangler, and Feb. 20, 1965, 

 Wirth; 1 d* , Ant'gua, St. Johns, Mar. 11, 1965, Evans; 1 9, Antigua, 

 English Harbor, Apr. 20, 1958, J. F. G. Clarke. 



The generic reference is made only provisionally and with the 

 realization that ultimately it will have to be changed. A critical study 

 of the genera of small, black Pachygaster-like Pachygastrinae is needed 

 badlv. The simplest thing to do would be to refer this species to a 

 new genus, which it probably is, but it is certainly more like the 

 Nearctic species of "Pachygaster" than they are like the type of the 

 genus, P. arta Panzer. True Pachygaster probably does not occur in 

 America. 



In Lindner's (1964) generic key, this species traces to Cyclotaspis; 

 the head in C. inornata Lindner, the type of the genus and the only 

 known species so far, is distinctly higher than wide and the abdominal 

 pile is erect. In my key (James, 1965) to the Nearctic genera it traces 

 to Pachygaster; the venation is quite similar to that of P. pulchnu 

 but that species has a much more differently shaped head and abdomen 

 and, among other things, lacks the golden mesonotal tomentum. In 

 P. cazieri James, from South Bimini, Bahamas, also placed only 

 provisionally in this genus, the venation is much different, R 2+3 

 arising well beyond cross- vein r-m. Lyprotemyia formicaeformis 

 Kertesz has many structural similarities with P. wirthi, but it can be 

 distinguished readily by the long, hornlike apical prolongation of the 

 scutellum. Pachygaster wirthi will not trace through the Kertesz 

 (1916) key because of a blind pocket in that key. 



