120 



through rhe kindness of Prof. Vernon Kellogg. I can find 

 no important diiferenees between Banks' genus and Epimodiop- 

 teron. 



8. Paeatiphia. 



It seems very doubtful if this genus can be maintained 

 since extra-American species are found which present singly 

 two of the three characters by which the genus is separated 

 from Tipliia. The first abdominal segment may be carinate 

 without the white clypens of the $ , while the venation is noi'- 

 mal for Tlphia, or the venation may be like Faraiiphia and the 

 other characters like Tlphia. 



EUMENIDAE. 

 1). What Is Abispa austeat.iaxa ^litchell ( 



The late ]\Ir. Meade Waldo (Ann. :\lag. Xat. Hist., (8) 

 14:401, 1014) synonymized MitcheH's genus Abispa with 

 Polistes, reviving Saussure's Moncrohla for this interesting 

 genus of Australian Eumenidae. That this course should not 

 1)6 followed was my conclusion after examination of Mitchell's 

 work, and the two Ilymenoptera involved in the question. 



]\litcheirs Journals of 1831-2 were prepared for pul)tica- 

 tion in IS-'JS, seven years after Mr. ]\litchell and his friend 

 were stung by the ferocious Polistes fepidas. It is evident 

 that the description was drawn up at the latter date and 

 from this description it is easy to see that the great ex- 

 plorer was far from l)eing familiar with entomological 

 terms. If one compares the descri]ition of the insect which 

 he gives with Polistes tepid u,^ and Suiith's Ahispu austi-alis 

 it seems ])erfectly clear that, in the seven years interven- 

 ing Ix'tweeu his expedition and the publication of his louruals 

 that he had become confused as to the identity of his assailant 

 and described the largest and most ferocious-looking of the 

 wasps he had collected under the influence of this confusion. 



Since the original description is not readily accessible to 

 eutouiologists its reproduction is desirable. It is found as a 



