320 Mr. A. White's Description of a 



Latreille has entered at some length into its history, cor- 

 recting the mistake he had fallen into in a preceding me- 

 moir*. He is inclined to beheve that the nest figured by Her- 

 nandez f under the name of " Yzaxalasmitl" belongs to the 

 Lecheguana. If this be the case, "Chiguana" or "Leche- 

 guana^' must be a name applied to diiferent sorts of wasps |, 

 as Azara's Chiguana is said expressly to inhabit a hard nest, 

 having the surface covered with prominent inequalities. 



In Lati'eille's insect, the mesothorax is sti'ongly truncated 

 at the end, and the scutelium is rather square and hollowed 

 out behind, the upper portion of the base of the abdomen being 

 applied to it ; the pedicel of the abdomen is extremely short. 

 In the insect, specimens of which I found on opening the 

 knob-covered nest I have described, the mesothorax and its 

 scutelium are gradually rounded off, and the first joint of the 

 abdomen is elongated into a pedicel. 



I am somewhat at a loss to which of the modern subgenera 

 to refer it, as it seems in some respects to differ from them 

 all. It would come nearest Saint Fargeau's genus Epipona, 

 which seems not the Epipone of Latreille's former works. 

 From Folybia of the same author it would appear to be not 

 distantly removed. I cannot find a description of it in any 

 work I have access to. 



Myrapetra§, nov. gen. 

 Head transverse, wider than the thorax ; stemmatn placed in an 

 equilateral triangle on vertex: atitenna (in neuter) I'i-jointed, 

 inserted in a depression of the face above the clypeus, rather 

 closer to the edge of the emarginate eyes than they are to each 

 other ; torulus deeply punctured. Mandibles rather long and 

 stout, with nearly parallel sides ; the outer margin with a few 

 hairs, beneath they are hollowed out, and viewed from above 

 seem to have several longitudinal striae ; at the end they are ob- 

 liquely truncated and furnished with four teeth : the inner, when 

 the mandible is viewed laterally, appears broad and truncated, 

 but when seen from beneath is small and rather sharp ; it is not 

 much removed from the other three, which are acuminate, and 



can find no difference in tliem. He proposed in the above vohune the name 

 Ncctarina for Lati-eille's and Perty's insect, as Brachijgaslra is preoccupied 

 in Entomology ; but Nectar'mia being already used in Ornithology, Mr. 

 Sliuckard proposes in lieu of it Melissaia, the species being M. Lecheguana. 



* On South American Bees, published in Humboldt and Bonpland's 

 ' Rec. d'Observ. de Zoologie.' 



f Nov. Hist., etc., p. 333. Latreille quotes the other as being in all pro- 

 bability the Lecheguana's nest, but his doing so seems to arise from an in- 

 advertent misquotation. 



+ St. Hilaire speaks of two species being distinguished in the country, 

 one making white and the other reddish honey. 



& A fanciful word compounded of the names of two, ancient cities, one 

 in Asia Minor, the other in Arabia. 



