1919] Kinsey — Fossil Cynipidce 45 



anticis, margine interiori et anteriori longis ciliis obsitse. Pedes 

 teneri, mediocriter longi. Ab omnibus Cynipsibus hucusque notis 

 longe differens." 



This description has been the basis of the most persistent ref- 

 erence to a fossil Cynips. The Delicia; Pragenses is rather rare, 

 so it seems worth copying the description in full. I cannot see 

 that it is possible to refer the above to a particular Hymenopterous 

 family, much less to consider such a vague description as defining a 

 species. 



Gravenhorst, J. L. C, 1835. Die in Bernstein erhalt. inseckt. 

 Page 92, merely includes "Diplolepis" in the list. 



Menge, a., 1856. Lebenszeichen voriveltlicher, im Bernstein 

 engleschlossener Thiere. Danzig. Page 25. Number five is de- 

 scribed as a wingless animal, a male, with thread-like, 14-jointed 

 antennae, the 3rd joint incised; at the tip of the abdomen is a 

 rather short projection, somewhat thickened at the tip. This 

 may have been a true Cynipid, but still the description is too brief 

 to define even the family, especially as I have seen a male Belytd 

 with similar antennae in Baltic amber, together with a wingless 

 female belonging to the same family. 



ScuDDER, S. H., 1886. Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey, No. 31, p. 98. 

 Says that the Cynipidae are "very abundant at Florissant and two 

 or three galls have been obtained there." The Scudder collection 

 is the source of two of the species described in the present paper; 

 the galls are undoubtedly not Cynipid, though it is usually useless 

 to attempt to decide on the nature of fossil galls. 



Brues, C. T., 1910. The Parasitic Hymenoptera of the Tertiary 

 of Florissant, Colorado. Bull. Mus. Comp, Zool. LIV, p. 1. De- 

 scribes Andricus myric^, a gall on a Myrica leaf. Prof. Cockerell 

 has drawn my attention to the fact that this is obviously a synonym 

 of Cecidomyia {?) pontaniiformis Cckll. (cf. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. 

 Hist. 1908, Vol. XXIV, p. 66.) 



The species described in the present paper are, then, the first 

 fossil Cynipidae definitely characterized. It is noteworthy that 

 the three species belong to one genus, or to two very closely related 

 genera. Aulacidea differs from Aylax only in having a closed 

 radial cell, and since only the third species shows that cell, the 

 first two may belong to Aylax. In any event, the relationship of 



