PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



issued 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Vol. 84 Washington: 1936 No. 2999 



THE ICHNEUMON-FLIES OF THE GENUS BEACH YCYR- 

 TUS KRIECHBAUMER 



By R, A. CuspiMAN 



Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, United States Department of 



Agriculture 



Only four species have heretofore been referred to the genus 

 Brachycyrtus Kriechbaumer, only three I believe properly so. The 

 fourth, Brachycytrus (sic!) aporiae (Matsumura ISIS.) Okamoto/ 

 described in Japanese, appears to be a Hemiteles and to have beeji 

 redescribed as Hemiteles ajporme by Uchida.^ The three species prop- 

 erly referred to the genus are the European ornatus Kriechbaumer, 

 the Japanese Proteroci^ptu.s nawaii Ashmead, transferred to 

 BiYichycyrtus by Roman, and the Australian australis Roman. 



In the three new species described herein the genus is introduced 

 for the first time as American. Apparently the genus is essentially 

 tropical and, as the fauna of the Tropics becomes better known, will 

 perhaps be found to be rich in species. 



Exclusive of the genotype, ornatus Kriechbaumer, which I have 

 not seen, the genus is divisible into three well-defined groups. The 

 characters distinguishing these groups are not, I believe, of generic 

 significance, although they are much more conspicuous than many 

 characters that are universally recognized as of generic status. Such 

 characters appear in many tropical genera and even in tropical spe- 

 cies of genera occurring in the Temperate Zone. 



1 Hokkaido Agr. Exp. Sta., Sapporo, Japan, Rep. 12, p. 65, 1921. 



2 Journ. Fac. Agr. Hokkaido Imp. Univ., vol. 25, p. 343, 1930. 



