ART. 16 WASPS OF THE SUBFAMILY BEACONINAE MUESEBECK 39 



shorter than the third; radius arising from about the middle of the 

 stigma; areolet small, triangular, petiolate or subpetiolate; first ab- 

 scissa of mediella much shorter than the second; nervellus not angled; 

 abdomen as long as the head and thorax combined, entirely polished; 

 the first tergite usually a little longer than broad at apex and pro- 

 vided with two prominent dorsal longitudinal keels which extend to 

 the middle of the tergite or a little beyond, the area between these 

 shallowly excavated; second tergite much ])roader than long; ovi- 

 positor sheatlis about as long as the abdomen or very slightly longer. 

 Head black, with a narrow reddish postorbital line; thorax black, the 

 metapleura and propodeum usually red; anterior and middle legs 

 black or blackish, the anterior tarsi brownish; posterior coxae and 

 femora red, their trochanters, more or less of their tibiae, and their 

 tarsi black; wings deeply infumated; abdomen red. 



Type.— CaI. No. 28682, U.S.N.M. 



Type locality. — Kanawha Station, West Virginia. 



Described from two female specimens collected by S. A. Rohwer. 

 In addition to the types the National Museum has a considerable 

 number of specimens from a wild range of localities, including points 

 in Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, 

 Ohio, Kentucky, Georgia, Texas, Nevada, and Washington. I have 

 also seen four specimens from Illinois in the collection of the Uni- 

 versity of Illinois and a single specimen in the collection of the 

 Boston Society of Natural History from Cambridge, Massachusetts 

 (C. W. Johnson). 



12. BASSUS SIMILLIMUS (Cresson) 



Microdus similUmus Cresson, Canad. Ent., vol. 5, 1873, p. 51. 



Type. — No. 1772, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, 

 Pennsylvania. 



This species is" easily distinguished by the group of characters 

 given in the key. There is a greater variation in size than is found 

 in most species, specimens varying from 3.5 to 8 mm. occuring 

 among the large amount of material examined. Face short and 

 broad, much broader than long to the apex of clypeus; third segment 

 of labial palpi very short, sometimes indistinct; cheeks broad, not 

 strongly receding; temples full, but not bulging; frontal impressions 

 very shallow; antennae usually 32 to 38 segmented, varying with 

 the size of the specimen; parapsidal furrows impressed and nearly 

 always distinctly foveolate; furrow in front of scutellum with several 

 distinctly separated pits; propodeum rugose, not areolated, but usu- 

 ally with two median carinae that converge both anteriorly and pos- 

 teriorly and set off a long narrow median area; dorsal aspect of 

 propodeum usually long and only very slightly declivous; mesopleu- 

 ral foveolate; inner spur of hind tibia considerably less than half 



