370 University of California PuhUcations [Entomology 



Since the days of de Saussure two keys to the genera of Masaridae 

 have been published. The one by Ashmead in the Canadian Entomol- 

 ogist, volume 34 (1902), page 219, will lead the unwary user astray 

 for the following reasons: (1) a primary division (category 3) reads 

 ''labrum extensible" where "ligula" is meant, and if not corrected 

 is unintelligible ; (2) Paraceramius, Ceramius, Ceramioides, Trimeria, 

 and Jujurhta [sic] are described as having the "labrum [i.e., ligula] 

 not extensible, ' ' which is incorrect for these genera ; ( 3 ) the character 

 used in category 8 (marginal cell with or without an appendage) will 

 not serve to distingiiish between the groups for which it is intended ; 

 (4) the claws of Masaris are incorrectly described as being simple, and 

 several other characters are thus incorrectly described and wrongly 

 applied. The second key is a compilation by Dalla Torre published 

 in the Genera Insectorum, 1904, fasc. 19, and contains most of Ash- 

 mead's errors and some additional ones. 



I wish to express my acknowledgments and gratitude to Dr. Joseph 

 Bequaert, who has contributed fertile suggestions and has taken much 

 interest in the prosecution of this work, and has loaned me, with 

 permission to dissect it, a female of Celonites, as well as specimens of 

 Gayella and Trimeria. Acknowledgments are further extended to Dr. 

 F. E. Lutz, for the loan of specimens of Paragia from the American 

 Museum of Natural History, with permission to dissect them ; to Dr. 

 Henry Skinner, for the loan of several species of Pseudomasaris from 

 the collection of the American Entomological Society, and to the 

 authorities of the United States National Museum for courtesies ex- 

 tended to me while visiting that institution. 



TAXONOMY OF THE MASARID WASPS^ 



The Mouth Parts and Their Value in Classification 



The remarkable retractile ligula of most of the genera of Masaridae 

 has been both figured and described by de Saussure, and I do not need 

 to dwell upon it here. When withdrawn, which is accomplished by a 

 process of introsusception, only the tip of the ligula is exposed, the 



1 Explanation of the text. — Under each genus is listed all of the species known 

 to belong to it, but references to literature are given only since the time of 

 Dalla Torre 's Catalopus Eymenopterorum. 



The color nomenclature is chiefly that of Eidgway 's Color Standards and Color 

 Nomenclature. 



