410 TJ. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 216 



Epirhyssa clavala Provancher, 1886, Additions et corrections au volume n de la 

 faune entomologique du Canada traitent des hym6nopteres, p. 115; <?• 

 Type: 9 , Cap Rouge, Que. (lost). 



Front wing of male 7 to 11 mm. long, of female 7 to 16 mm. long; 

 face with sparse, smallfpunctures which are usually denser and larger 

 on central part of face; central part of face with some fine, mostly- 

 transverse wrinkling or almost smooth; upper part of pronotum with 

 rather dense, fine punctures; first tergite usually strongly swollen near 

 base, especially in males. 



Black or blackish brown. Face of male, moderately wide orbital 

 stripes on face of female, short band on front orbit of both sexes, palpi 

 of male, and tegula, white; palpi of female white to brown; flagellum 

 often brown beneath, especially toward apex; legs fulvous, usually 

 front coxa of female, more or less of front trochanters, base of front 

 femur, often more or less of front femur of male, apex of front and 

 middle femora, base of front and middle tibiae, and usually dorso- 

 posterior face of front tibia, yellowish white; apex of hind femur 

 fuscous; hind tibia infuscate, its base and most of its ventral side 

 paler (white to light brown), its apical 0.3 and a dorsal subbasal area 

 darker; hind tarsus brownish. Wings hyaline or with a faint brown 

 tinge. 



Specimens from British Columbia are rather different from those 

 from the Transition zone in the East, but specimens from the Canadian 

 zone in the East are rather intermediate. British Columbia specimens 

 have the wings tinged with brown, lack the posterodorsal white stripe 

 on the front tibia, and in the single British Columbian male at hand 

 the central 0.6 of the face is black. Male specimens from other areas 

 have the face entirely white. 



This species is close to the European Rhyssella approximator (Fab- 

 ricius) 1793, and may prove to be only subspecifically distinct. The 

 European species differs in lacking the infuscation at the apex of the 

 hind femur, having the hind tibia uniformly fulvous, and in having 

 the punctation of the body and head, especially of the face, averaging 

 a little coarser and denser. It has usually been known under the 

 name of Rhyssa curvipes Gravenhorst 1829, which is a synonym. We 

 have seen the type of Gravenhorst's name in Wroclaw and of Fabri- 

 cius' name in Copenhagen. The name approximator has usually been 

 applied (erroneously) to a species of Pseudorhyssa, which in Europe 

 is placed in the genus Rhyssa. 



Specimens (79 d 1 , 1309): From British Columbia (Oliver and 

 Robson) ; Iowa (Iowa City) ; Maine (Lunksos Lake on the East Branch 

 of the Penobscot River) ; Maryland (Plummers Island) ; Massachusetts 

 (Amherst, Cummington at 1,200 ft., Mount Wachusett near Princeton, 

 and Petersham) ; Michigan (Alcona Co., Ann Arbor, Aurelius, Bay Co., 

 Benzie Co., Cheboygan Co., Chippewa Co., Detroit, East Lansing, 



