ART. IC WASPS OF THE SUBFAMILY BRACONINAE MUESEBECK 51 



3. AGATHIRSIA THORACICA (Cresson) 



Microdus thoracicus Cresson, Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc, vol. 4, 1872, p. 181. 

 Paragathis thoracicus Ashmead, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 11, 1889 (1888), p. 

 638. 



Type. — The type of this species is in the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; paratypes are in the United 

 States National Museum. 



Readily disinguished by the characters given in the key to species . 

 Face closely punctate, pilose, not convex, somewhat impressed either 

 side of the median hne: malar space considerably less than half the 

 length of the eyes; temples broad, bulging; antennae usually 29 to 

 31 segmented, the female antennae with most of the 15 apical seg- 

 ments broader than long; parapsidal furrows deeply impressed ; the 

 middle mesonotal lobe rather flat, with a low polished median longi- 

 tudinal elevated hne; scutellum short and very broad, propodeum 

 rugose, with long, abundant, sericeous pile; posterior tibiae with 

 numerous short, stout spines on the outer side at apex; posterior basi- 

 tarsus strongly incrassate; last segment of hind tarsi about as long as 

 the second; first abdominal tergite usually slightly longer than broad 

 at apex, the apical half convex, with a faint median longitudinal 

 impression; ovipositor sheaths not, or only a little, longer than first 

 abdominal segment. Head black; female antennae bright orange 

 yellow, with a little more than the apical third black; thorax black, 

 with only upper half of propleura and the mesoscutum yellow-fer- 

 ruginous; the first abdominal tergite testaceous with a large black spot 

 apically; remainder of abdomen more or less varied with blackish, 

 but the apical segments above always ferruginous; all coxae and tro- 

 chanters black; the fore femora black at base and below; the middle 

 femora usually mostly black, and the posterior femora black except 

 narrowly at apex; tibiae and tarsi bright yellow; wings yellow, with 

 the third cubital, the second discoidal, and second brachial cells in- 

 fuscated. 



In addition to four paratypes the National Museum has nine speci- 

 mens, likewise collected in Texas. 



Genus CRASSOMICRODUS Ashmead 



Crassomicrodus Ashmead, Proc. IJ. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 23, 1900, p. 128. Genotype. — 



Microdus fulvescens Cresson (Monobasic). 

 Epimicrodus Ashmead, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 23, 1900, p. 129. Genotype. — • 



Microdus diversus [sic]=divisus Cression (Monobasic). 

 Crassomicrodus Ashmeaid= (Epimicrodus Ashmead), Bradley, Psyche, vol. 23, 



1916, pp. 139-140. 



Bradley was correct in reducing Epimicrodus to synonymy under 

 Crassomicrodus. The two genotypes, Microdus fulvescens Cresson 

 and Microdus divisus Cresson, are unquestionably congeneric. 



