INVESTIGATIONS ON THE MUTILLID WASPS 43 



Bruesia Ashmead, Can. Ent., vol. 35, 1903, p. 306. 

 Pl/onomutilla Ashmead, Can. Ent., vol. 36, 1904, p. 8. 

 Haplotype. — Mtitilla {SphaeropMlialma) gorgon Blake. 



The first species to be described in this genus was occidentalis 

 Linnaeus, the first species mentioned by Linnaeus in his tenth edi- 

 tion of the Systema Naturae. The genus was first recognized by 

 Say. He proposed Ephuta\ in 1836 as a subgenus of Mutilla and 

 included three species. Two genera were represented in these three 

 species; et^thrina and gihhosa representing one and sci^pea repre- 

 senting the other. Say's description of the genus applies to the 

 first two, since he says " Eyes entire or emargination obsolete." 

 Unfortunately, perhaps, Ashmead (1899) designated scrwpea as the 

 type of the genus E'phuta, because that was the only one of the three 

 species that he Imew in both sexes, and thereby gave the genus an 

 entirely different meaning than that indicated in Say's diagnosis. 

 Andre (1903(2) did not accept Ashmead's designation of type nor 

 his definition of the genus Ephuta^ so that his Ephuta is synonymous 

 with DasyniutilMi Ashmead. 



Blake (1871) was the next to recognize this group as having sub- 

 generic rank at least, and proposed Sphaerophthalma as a subgenus 

 of Mutilla to include those species with circular, convex, polished 

 €yes. He later (1886) elevated Sphaerophthahna to the rank of 

 genus. He included 84 species in this section and his conception 

 of the group as expressed in his description of it was identical with 

 that described by Say. Ashmead chose the first species listed when 

 he designated a type in 1899, making Mutilla {Sphaerophthahna) 

 scaeva Blake the type. While this species has circular, convex, 

 polished eyes, it is not congeneric with the majority of the remain- 

 ing species included, so that as defined by Ashmead it is a valid 

 genus very different from Dasymutilla and quite different from 

 Blake's original conception. 



Since Ashmead's designation of types for both Ephuta and Sphae- 

 rophthalma were made correctly according to the International Rules 

 of Nomenclature, the genera now stand as valid with limits as de- 

 fined by him, and so limited are not synonymous with DasymutiTla 

 in any sense of the word. 



Fox (1899) returned all the species placed by Blake in the genus 

 SptiaeropJithalma to Mutilla and most of them were arranged in his 

 groups '"''waco^'' ^^ asopus,''^ and '■'■ occide?italisy 



Dasymutilla was proposed as a genus by Ashmead in 1899 with 

 Mutilla {Sphaerophthalma) gorgon Blake as the type. Ashmead's 

 definition of the genus is as follows : 



Abdomen with the first segment petiolate or petioliform, never broadly sessile 

 with the second, but much narrowed at the apex, and usually with a constric- 

 tion or furrow between it and the second ; eyes rounded or hemispherical, very 



