THE NEARCTIC EVANIIDAE — TOWNES 527 



refer to Evania belong properly in Prosevania, Evaniella, Szeplige- 

 tella^ and Acanthinevania. 



In the Nearctic Region E'vania in the strict sense contains only the 

 introduced E. appendig aster. Most of the other species of the genus 

 are Oriental. 



EVANIA APPENDIGASTER (Linnaeus) 



Iclineumon appendigastcr Linnaeus, Systema naturae, ed. 10, p. 566, 1758. Type: 



Hispanic America (location unknown). 

 Evania unicolor Say, in Keating, Narrative of an expedition to the source of 



St. Peters River, etc., vol. 2, p. 320, 1S24 ; LeConte ed., vol. 1, p. 214. Types : 



Pennsylvania and near Rocky Mountains (destroyed). 



The large size of this species (forewing 5.5 to 7.0 mm. long) makes 

 it superficially similar only to Prosevania punctata among the Nearctic 

 species. It may be distinguished from this species by its smooth face, 

 with fine, rather sparse punctures, and by the pleura with rather sparse, 

 very large separate punctures rather than close, large, reticulate 

 punctures. 



JSpecimens. — Many males and females from Arizona (Globe, Santa 

 Rita Mountains, Tempe, and Tucson) ; District of Columbia (Wash- 

 ington) ; Florida (Arcadia, Fort Myers, and Jacksonville) ; Georgia 

 (Atlanta and Thomasville) ; Louisiana (Baton Rouge) ; New York 

 (Long Island and New York City) ; Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) ; 

 Tennessee (MemjDhis) ; and Texas (Dallas, El Paso, Houston, San 

 Antonio, and 20 miles north of San Antonio). Most of these speci- 

 mens were taken during the summer months. Those of other dates 

 are: April 6 at Arcadia, Fla.; April 22 at Fort Myers, Fla. ; May 23 

 at Philadelphia, Pa. ; May 28 at Baton Rouge, La. ; September G at 

 Dallas, Tex. ; and December at Philadelphia, Pa. The earliest Nearctic 

 record of capture on this material is a specimen from Washing- 

 ton, D. C., taken June 5, 1879, but Say's record of the presumably 

 synonymous Eva^iia unicolor is much earlier. 



This species is probably of Oriental origin, but it now occurs in 

 most of the tropical and subtropical parts of the world. In the 

 United States it is common in Arizona and in the cities of the Gulf 

 and Atlantic States as far north as New York City. In other parts 

 of the world it has been reared from the egg capsules of Blatta 07'ie7i- 



^ SsepUgetella Bradley, 1908, was erected as a monotypic endemic genus for the Hawaiian 

 Evania sericea Cameron. E. sericea is not an endemic of Hawaii, as I have seen specimens 

 of it also from New Guinea, Fiji, the Philippines, the Marquesas. Kapingamarangi, Bikini, 

 Swains Island (north of Samoa), and Tahiti. It was recorded from the New Hebrides by 

 Cheesman in 19-36. A specimen I collected on Kapingamarangi was flying about the eaves 

 of a native house of Pandanus thatch. In view of this and its distribution, it seems prob- 

 able that sericea is parasitic on a blattid living in Pandanus thatch and with its host was 

 widely spread by migrations of the Polynesians and other natives. In the U. S. National 

 Museum are Ave additional species of SzepUgetella, all from Australia. 



