306 PROVEEDIXGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.52. 



SUBFAMILY AGATHINAE. 



The following characters, taken from the papers of Szephgeti 

 and Ashmead, will show what forms are to be included here: Abdo- 

 men inserted at the apex of the propodeum between the hind coxae; 

 mandibles, when closed, with their tips touchmg or crossmg, not 

 forming a roimded openmg in conjmiction with a semicncularly 

 emargmate clypeus; abdomen subsessile, the doi-sum showing the 

 usual sutures, except between the second and third tergites; radial 

 cell very narrow, and not approaching the tip of the wing, the second 

 cubital cell (areola) very smaU, or wantmg in some cases; eyes not 

 hairy. The very small or missing second cubital cell, and the nar- 

 row radial cell, with the radial vein runnmg parallel or almost parallel 

 to the margin of the stigma, are the most easily recognized and most 

 distinctive characters. In the older classifications, best presented 

 by that of Marshall, this subfamily was included with the Micro- 

 gasterinae in the group Areolarini of Wcsmael, but the last two general 

 classifications, that of Ashmead (1900) and Szepligcti (1904), present 

 the subfamihes without attempting to group them in higher miits. 



Twenty-five known genera are recognized by Szephgeti, while he 

 gives five additional, which contain no described species or are not 

 recognizable. Since the publication of his paper some five or six 

 new genera have been described, while of this number, 10 genera have 

 been reported or described from the United States, Species belong- 

 ing in the subfamily have been recorded from all of the larger land 

 areas of the earth, and from some islands, as Hawaii and the Phihp- 

 pmes. At present a majority of the known species are from the 

 Palearctic and Nearctic regions, but it seems probable that a more 

 thorough collection throughout the world will show that the species 

 are most abundant in tropical regions. 



It is obvious, even from the limited study which I have made 

 of the different species included in this subfamily, that a revision of 

 the genera is greatly needed. The one character to which most 

 importance has been attached since the beginning of attempts at classi- 

 fication, the shape and appearance of the head when viewed from in 

 front, is easily shown to be of little or no value generically, if any con- 

 siderable series of species is examined, although it seems to be useful 

 for specific determination, and is somewhat characteristic in certain 

 genera. However, it is impossible to draw any distinguishing line, 

 based on this character, between the genera Agathis and Bassus 

 (Microdus), as they are at present recognized in this comitry, although 

 Forster, followed by Ashmead in his classification of the Ichneumon 

 FHes, divided the subfamily into two tribes, the Agathidini, with the 

 head as viewed from in front shaped as an elongate isoceles triangle, 

 and the Microdini, with the head short and forming an equilateral 



