22 AMERICAN HYMENOPTERA. 



Strongly converging, nervellus usually broken below the mid- 

 dle ; antennae long, filiform ; wings without areola or macula, 

 discocubital cell receiving both recurrent veins ; intermediate 

 tibiae with two apical spurs, claws pectinate ; abdomen usually 

 strongly compressed. 



Generic type. — O. luteus L.* 



The American members of this genus are medium sized 

 insects compared with others of the tribe, smaller than the 

 Thyreodons or Athyreodons. They are usually flavo-fulvous, 

 sometimes marked with fuscous or black, and closely resemble 

 members of the Genus Paniscus, but may be readily separated 

 by the presence of an areolet in the latter. In most Ophions 

 the discocubital vein is angularly broken and appendiculate, 

 but in bifoveolatus, chilensis and a few others this vein is 

 frequently only angularly bent or almost arcuate aud the ap- 

 pendix rudimentary or wanting. In these species the ocelli 

 are nearly as small as in Thyreodon, and the nervellus, is 

 often broken above the middle, but the presence of a distinct 

 stigma places them at once in the Genus Ophion, for in Thy- 

 reodon the stigma is lacking. Members of the Genus Eremo- 

 tylus may be readilv separated by characters of venation ; 

 the basal half of the radius being thickened and the third dis- 

 coidal cell long and narrow, while it is short and broad in 

 Ophion. This, the oldest genus of the tribe, was proposed 

 by Fabricius in 1798 and characterized as follows : 



"Mouth with clypeus short, rounded, entire; four unequally elon- 

 gated, filiform palpi, the anterior longer, with six cylindrical segments ; 

 the maxillae attached behind to the posterior which are four-jointed 

 and attached to the top of the labium above. Mandibles horny, carved, 

 bidentate. Maxillae short, membranaceous, entire. Labium short, 

 ovate, membranaceous, entire, attached to the palpiger. Antennae 

 setaceous." 



Twenty-one species were designated and given the usual 

 short descriptions of the day. Many of these, luteus, etc., 

 are well known and still retained in the Genus Ophion, but 

 quite a number — among which are the American species de- 

 scribed, flavus, morio and relictus — have been removed to 



* Designated by Curtis, Brit. Ent., 13, p. 600, 1836; Westwood' 

 Generic Synopsis, p. 60, 1839. 



