ICHNEUMON-FLIES — GELINAE : MESOSTENINI 405 



in Wake Co., N.C.; August 20 at 5,200 ft. on Mount Mitchell, N.C.; 

 and August 21 at Highlands, N.C The latest United States records 

 are: September 26 in Wake Co., N.C; October 28 at Takoma Park, 

 Md.; and December 18 at Cape Sable, Fla. 



The usual habitat is weedy fields or meadows. 



This species occurs in southeastern United States and ranges south- 

 ward to southern Brazil. It appears to overwinter in southern Florida 

 and near Brownsville, Tex., and to work northward each season. 



23. Genus Polycyrtidea 



Figure 319,b 



Polycyrtidea Viereck, 1913, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., vol. 46, p. 382, Type: Poly- 

 cyrtidea gracilis Viereck; original designation. 



Front wing 4.8 to 6.5 mm. long; bod}'' very slender; frons with a 

 short conical horn in the middle; clypeus rather small and strongly 

 convex, its apical 0.3 abruptly declivous, its apical margin evenly 

 convex, without a median point; mesoscutum moderately convex, pol- 

 ished or subpolished, its punctures coarse or of moderate size, separated 

 by about 2.0 their diameter; notaulus sharp and deep, reaching beyond 

 center of mesoscutum; epomia strong, ending dorsally in a very strong 

 tubercle on upper edge of pronotum; propodeum short, rather weakly 

 convex, its basal carina sharp and complete, its apical carina repre- 

 sented by low sublateral tubercles; propodeal spu-acle subcircular; 

 areolet very small, not well formed, the second intercubitus absent; 

 ramellus absent ; nervulus a little basad of basal vein ; base of second 

 discoidal cell narrowed to a point; mediella very strongly arched; 

 nervellus broken below the middle, the discoidolla usually faint; 

 axillus moderately close to anal margin ; fh'st abdominal segment long, 

 very slender, terete, without a subbasal lateral tooth, its spiracle near 

 its apical 0.41; second tergite mat or subpolished, with fine, weak 

 punctures that, in female, are separated by about the length of the 

 hairs, somewhat denser in male; tergite 7 without a median pale spot 

 but often margined with yellow; ovipositor sheath about 0.21 as long 

 as front wing; ovipositor rather slender, with a long tapered point. 



Polycyrtidea is a small genus, of Neotropic distribution. One 

 species ranges as far north as southern Texas. The rest of the de- 

 scribed species are: Bassus meriiorius Fabricius 1804 (British Guiana), 

 Mesostenus pusillus Cresson 1865 (Cuba), Agrypon Jlavopictus Ash- 

 mead 1900 (Grenada and Venezuela to southern Brazil), and Poly- 

 cyrtidea gracilis Viereck 1913 (Paraguay). Polycyrtidea meritoria 

 (Fabricius) is a new combination. The species are rather closely 

 similar and it is often difficult, with the meager material in collections, 

 to decide on specific limits. Some of the species named as distinct 

 may be only subspecies. 



