ICHNEUMON-FLIES — GELINAE : MESOSTENINI 459 



The characteristic habitat is weedy vegetation in full sunlight. 

 This species is transcontinental in the Upper and Lower Austral 

 zones and ranges southward into Mexico. 



29. Genus Polycyrtus 



Figure 322,b 



Polycyrtus Spinola, 1840, Ann. Soc. Ent. France, vol. 9, p. 154. Type: Polycyrtus 



histrio Spinola; designated by Viereck, 1914. 

 Cryptanuridimor-pha Viereck, 1913, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., vol. 46, p. 369. Type: 



Cryptaniiridimorpha elegans Viereck; original designation. 

 Cryptopterigimorpha Viereck, 1913, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., vol. 46, p. 371. Type: 



Cry ptopterigvnorpha tubulifera Viereck; original designation. 

 Polycyrtimorpha Viereck, 1913, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., vol. 46, p. 383. Type: 



Polycyrtimorpha amoena Viereck; original designation. 



Front wing 5.0 to 13.5 mm. long; body quite slender; frons with a 

 median conical horn; mesoscutum rather strongly convex, polished, 

 practically impunctate but with a few fine, weak punctures; notaulus 

 very strong, reachmg far beyond middle of mesoscutum; epomia 

 usually absent or very short and blunt, but sometimes moderately long 

 and sharp; prepectal carina variable, sometimes ending near lower 

 corner of pronotum but usually farther dorsad, sometimes at the sub- 

 tegular ridge; propodeum long, its basal carina strong and complete, 

 its apical carina represented by a pair of sublateral horns that are 

 usuallj^ long and somewhat curved but may be short or represented 

 only by low rounded tubercles, the rest of apical carina usually 

 absent but sometimes traceable between the horns; in one species 

 group the apical carina is relatively complete and unmodified and forms 

 sublateral crests rather than horns; propodeal spiracle elongate 

 elliptic; areolet small or very small, rectangular, wider than high, 

 usually about 1.6 as wide as high; ramellus absent; nervulus usually 

 a little basad of basal vein but sometimes opposite it; base of second 

 discoidal cell broad; mediella moderately arched; nervellus broken 

 below the middle; axillus short, close to anal margin ; first abdominal 

 segment moderately long, with a subbasal lateral point, its spiracle 

 near its apical 0.40, without longitudinal carinae, the apex of its 

 sternite distad of the spiracle; second tergite polished, almost im- 

 punctate but with moderately sparse to very sparse, fine, weak, 

 setiferous punctures; tergite 7 without a median white spot but often 

 margined with white; ovipositor sheath about 0.53 as long as front 

 wing; ovipositor moderately slender, somewhat compressed, its apical 

 point with a long taper. 



Polycyrtus is a very large genus. There is, however, only one 

 Nearctic species. All the rest are Neotropic. 



