BIOLOGICAL PAPERS 319 



areolet nearly oblong, more than twice as broad as high; the recurrent 

 nervure a little before interstitial with the second transverse cubitus; disco- 

 cubital nervure nearly straight, the so-called first recurrent nervure nearly 

 two-thirds the length of the true recurrent nervure; transverse median 

 nervure a little basad of interstitial with the basal nervure; transverse 

 median nervure in the posterior wings broken in the middle. Abdomen entirely 

 smooth and highly polished; the petiole slender with a few punctures dorsally 

 and nearly as long as the abdomen beyond the second segment, the petiole not 

 much broader at apex than at base; the second segment nearly as long as the 

 petiole, more than twice as wide at apex as at base. Very thinly, inconspicu- 

 ously covered with short whitish hairs. Ferruginous; apex of mandibles, meso- 

 sternum anteriorly and posteriorly, margins around the scutellum and lateral 

 ventral margins of metathorax black or blackish ; flagellum almost entirely black 

 or blackish, basal joint beneath brown, joints 6, 7, 8 and base of 9 white above, 

 Bcape and pedicellum nearly concolorous with the face; ovipositor translucent 

 brown, sheaths black. 



Type : University of Kansas. Type locality: Clark county, Kansas, 1962 feet. 

 May, 1903, F. H. Snow. 



Paratype from Morton county, Kansas, 3200 feet. June, 1902, F. H. Snow. 



Nematopodius macilentus Cresson. 



One male. Douglas county, Kansas, 900 feet; F. H. Snow. 



Mesostenus thoracicus Cresson. 



One female, small form. Clark county, Kansas, 1962 feet; June, F. H. Snow. 



Mesostenus discoidaloides, n. sp. 



Superficially very like discoidlais, from which it differs in structure and color 

 details. 



Female. — Length, 10 mm. Head shining ; front polished, almost impunctate, 

 punctured along the eye margin; face sparsely, indistinctly punctured; clypeus 

 polished, almost impunctate; cheeks polished, apparently impunctate; malar 

 space distinct, as high as two- thirds the width of the mandibles at base; an- 

 tenna; twenty-five jointed, scape and pedicellum together distinctly shorter than 

 the first joint of the flagellum, about as long as the fourth joint of the flagellum. 

 Thorax shining; dorsulum distinctly, rather closely punctured and with dis- 

 tinctly impressed parapsidal grooves that extend back at least two-thirds the 

 length of the dorsulum ; mesopleura in greater part punctured like the dorsulum, 

 an oblique shallow groove that is largely smooth and impunctate separates a 

 small, polished, convex area in the upper posterior angle of the mesopleura from 

 the rest of the sclerite, a pit near the middle of the sclerite (a little above the 

 middle), and close to the posterior margin, the characteristic cryptine groove 

 extending back from the anterior margin for about two-thirds the length of the 

 sclerite and gently curved upward; scutellum polished, rather sparsely punc- 

 tured; metathorax more closely puncturad than the dorsulum, the meta- 

 thorax rounded and almost precisely divided into thirds, by transverse caricse, 

 the basal carina moderate, the apical carina rather indistinct, apparently ab- 

 sent in the middle, spiracles oval, nearly round, no shi; rp angles whatever; 

 wings almost clear, colorless, the apical margins narrowly infuscated, stigma 

 pale brown, nervures dark brown; areolet pentangular, almost quadrate, the re- 

 current nervure received in the middle of the areolet; transverse median nervure 

 in posterior wings bent to form an obtuse angle, with the angle a little above the 

 middle and receiving the discoidal nervure. Abdomen shining ; the first segment 



